The People’s Campaign for Agrarian Reform Network has analyzed that the proposed Omnibus Housing and Urban Development Act shows that major provisions of the said bill, particularly Section 33 (which provides for the policy on “designation and use of lands for housing and urban development purposes”), if enacted, will have serious and detrimental impact on the welfare of farmers and on the food security of the nation. First, Section 33 of the said bill threatens the food security of the nation as it virtually allows the conversion of most of the agricultural lands to residential and other urban uses. It even allows the conversion of irrigated and irrigable lands.  Second, it provides major loopholes for landowners to evade CARP coverage. Aside from facilitating the conversion of agricultural lands to non-agricultural uses (converted lands automatically are exempted from CARP coverage), Section 33 also prohibits the issuance of any “Notice of Coverage under CARP, Notice of Valuation or any similar instruments of the DAR” over lands designated for housing and urban development and lands zoned prior or after effectivity of R.A. No. 6657 for residential, commercial, industrial or other urban development purposes. Any such notice that may have been already issued would be deemed lifted within 30 days from effectivity of the proposed Act. (AR Now!, Kaisihan.org)


Section 23 of the Housing Bill:Anti-Farmer, Anti-Agrarian Reform, Anti-Food Security, Unconstitutional and an Insult to the Peasantry by the People’s Campaign for Agrarian Reform Network states that, the People’s Campaign for Agrarian Reform Network (AR Now!), a national campaign center for agrarian reform and rural development consisting of fourteen (14) peasant organizations and non-government organizations, puts forward its strongest opposition to Section 33 of House Bill No. 4517 or the proposed Omnibus Housing and Urban Development Act (OHUDA) and demands its deletion from the proposed legislation. To pass the Omnibus Housing and Urban Development Act with Section 33 will send a clear message to the peasantry that the government (both executive and legislative) has totally abandoned its Constitutional mandate for agrarian reform and rural development.


Aside from opening up almost all agricultural lands to land use conversion (which may further contribute to the shortage of lands required for attaining production levels that will allow us to attain food security/self-sufficiency), as stated above, Section 33 (Section 33 [f] in particular) also emphasizes that not even “irrigated or irrigable” lands,  known as the prime agricultural lands will be preserved or protected from land use conversion. This runs counter to the intent of existing laws and policies on land use which, relatively, have “respected” and protected irrigated and irrigable lands, declaring them as “non-negotiable” for land use conversion.  This policy of protecting, at the least, irrigated and irrigable lands has been primarily due to the general recognition of the important role that irrigation plays in agricultural productivity and, also, on the high cost of putting up irrigation facilities. This is also because of the fact that the Philippines has very limited agricultural lands with existing irrigation facilities. Of the 9.7 million hectares or 10.3 million hectares being “actually” used for agriculture, only 3.1 million hectares are irrigable or have the potential of being irrigated. Moreover, of the 3.1 million hectares of irrigable lands, only 1.3 million hectares are irrigated.  Given that the Philippines has remained a primarily agricultural country, with the failed industrialization attempts of past governments and the unlikely possibility of it being achieved in the near future, emphasis on agrarian reform and rural development should be maintained and even intensified. (Kaisahan.org)


In a press release by the PAMBANSANG KILUSAN NG MGA SAMAHANG MAGSASAKA (PAKISAMA) last March 2002, it opposes the housing bill stating, “The enactment of the proposed Omnibus Housing and Urban Development Act is anti-farmer, anti-food security and will clearly undermine the implementation of agrarian reform in the country, “ declares Ka Aning Loza, President of the Pambansang Kilusan ng mga Samahang Magsasaka (PAKISAMA), a 20,000-strong national peasant federation. The proposed Bill, which is due for deliberations in the House of Representatives, authorizes local government units to designate all lands in cities and almost all lands, including prime agricultural lands, in 1st to 4th class municipalities to housing and urban development purposes. (AR, NOW!, Kaisahan.org)


However, with People Power II being fueled by dissatisfaction with the abuses and failures of the Estrada Administration, it was only appropriate that members of civil society, who played key roles in People Power II, would have higher expectations with the current administration in terms of performance and framework. The new administration has been expected to deliver more in the areas of poverty alleviation, asset reform, people empowerment and economic growth. However, after a year in power, the Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo administration, to say the least, has been a big disappointment in the areas of agrarian reform and rural development.


No major (pro-poor/peasant) policies or program accomplishments can be cited in the areas of agrarian reform and rural/agricultural development. In the area of agrarian reform, the implementation of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform program (CARP) almost stood still in 2001. According to a status report on SONA commitments posted at the government’s website (www.gov.ph), as of 20 December 2001, DAR has distributed only a total of 47,626 hectares of private agricultural lands out of the 100,000-hectare target that it has set for the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR; it also targeted another 100,000 hectares for public lands under the jurisdiction of the DENR). The 100,000-hectare target for DAR sets up the Macapagal-Arroyo Administration to beat the record of the Estrada Administration for having the lowest annual average output of 133,355 hectares. Also the annual target set by the Macapagal-Arroyo Administration places the target of completing the program by 2008 in jeopardy. As of end of December 2001, the DAR still had a remaining balance of some 1.19 million hectares, which meant that it had to target at least 150,000 hectares per year. ()


Of the post-EDSA presidents, President  may be considered to have made the most “concrete” commitment to agrarian reform-she had her husband’s lands in Negros Occidental covered under the voluntary offer to sell (VOS) scheme of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP). However, the GMA administration will have to be judged in terms of actual land distribution/installation, support services delivery and agrarian justice delivery (which would still be too early to determine). Thus, her act of “sacrifice” shall remain a “symbolic” gesture until her administration truly delivers in terms of program accomplishments. (, July 2001 )


As stated by KAISAHAN (2000), agrarian reform failures are as follows: 


1.  Present efforts at agrarian reform has failed because government still believes that it is economically costly and does not want to disturb the status quo. In many cases, government has not paid enough attention to providing areas subject to agrarian reform with the necessary infrastructures and social services, setting up an efficient organization for technical assistance, to ensuring equitable access to credit at sustainable cost, and fixing land prices and forms of payment that are incompatible with what is needed for its development and meeting the living requirements of poor farmers’ families.


2.  The lack of a progressive taxation policy on agricultural land, especially idle lands, has encouraged landowners to hold on to their lands and increases the speculative value of the land while productivity decreases. All this has encouraged a process of accumulation of land based on investment in land (landbanking activities of developers, for one), with small farmers who are often in the sidelines of the land market, being excluded in the process.


3.  Paradigm shift in which agrarian policies have been managed to promote the export of agricultural production, which often encouraged the process of concentration of land in the hands of a few. Agricultural exports come mainly from plantation-size or large-scale landholding system, to the detriment of the growth of autonomous family-size farm units devoted primarily for food production.


4.  Price control policies have been adopted for certain products, favoring large agro-industrial concerns and export growers, but penalizing small growers producing traditional farm products. If the market prompts small farmers to grow export crops, this often takes place at the expense of production intended mainly for their own consumption, thus putting farming families at considerable risk. Unfavorable climatic or market conditions can lead to a vicious cycle of hunger, so that they contract huge debts that will eventually for them to give up ownership of their lands.


5.  Lack of political will to implement redistributive agrarian reform is being reflected in legislative deficiencies and delays in recognizing ownership rights over private and state lands to actual tillers, small budget allocations, etc. Likewise, massive land conversion of prime agricultural lands, even if prohibited by laws, continue unabated thereby endangering the country’s food security.


6.  The low priority for agriculture reflected in budgetary allocations means that under globalization and trade liberalization, the government is willing to sacrifice small farmers and producers. The new track will focus on big farms, non-traditional cash crop exports, and non-food production.


7.  As Francisco Lara noted, “the apparent distrust of the Estrada government in the capability of farmers to manage their own lands and its continued reliance on the expertise of landlords will be a big stumbling block to the success of agrarian reform.” The Estrada government’s coddling of the sugar industry, an economically inefficient sector, is also sealing the fate of what could have been a competitive farming scheme under the control of small landholders.


  Foreign Literature

The Philippines is characterized by the coexistence of small peasant farms and large plantations. While only 3.4 per cent of all farms are larger than 10 hectares, these cover as much as a third of the total agricultural land area. On the other hand, almost two-thirds of all farms are less than three hectares in size and cover only 30 per cent of the total cultivable area. The pattern looks even more disproportional when land distribution by type of crop planted is considered. This is due to the fact that huge corporate plantations are involved in the production of these commodities. Over half of all farms (59%) are owner operated. However, share tenancy continues to be prevalent, especially in rice and corn farms, in spite of past reform measures. Owner operated farms make up 61% of the total farm area, while 20% is characterized by share tenancy arrangements.


Based on the Asian NGO Coalition: A Review of Land Reforms in Asia, overall issues cited: Conflicting macro-economic policies and priorities that conflict with objectives of land/asset reform; use and exploitation of public concessions, policy on foreign ownership of land, neglect and development bias against agriculture; lack of political will: lack of legal framework for pursuing reforms, resistance by political and economic interest groups, non-implementation of existing laws; lack of transparency and participation; governance; land speculation and market forces; conflicts of existing policies and priorities with customary laws, rights, access and use.


The Global Campaign for Agrarian Reform Bulletin (No. 9, April, 2002), informs of the activities that organizations carried out in the frame of April 17th “International Peasant struggle day” and the participation in the Global Campaigns International Seminar “The negative impact of the World Bank agrarian reform market policy”, the results of the Global Campaigns Research Mission in Honduras, as well as a report of the different solidarity activities with different peasant movements in their fair struggle for the access to land and other ways of production, as well as the foreseen activities to be developed by the campaign during the next two months.


In the frame of this International Mission a Press Communicate was made in which they recommend: The International Mission considers that the State of Honduras must make the access to land and other productive resources easier for rural families without land, in the frame of a wide program for agrarian reform and rural development, implementing in this way, its obligation to fulfill international rights, especially the right to feed:  that the Honduran Government strengthen its institutions regarding agrarian reform and particularly the INA (National Agrarian Institute), at the same time we request the same INA the necessary reforms for obtaining efficiency with agrarian conflicts and the access to land; to review the current legislation especially the law for Agricultural Modernization, in order to facilitate and push forward agrarian reform and guarantee greater security for Agrarian Reform Cooperatives; establish a land registry program that will guarantee a transparent frame for land ownership in the Honduran Agro; that the Supreme Court of Justice take the correct measures for future judges to consider the validity of Economic, Social and Cultural Human Rights (DESC), established in the International Pact by the DESC, of which Honduras forms part. We also request that they should not order the displacement of peasant groups without going through every administrative procedure with the National Agrarian Institute; that the Supreme Court of Justice carry out an exhaustive investigation of the processes that have led to forceful displacements, as well as reviewing the participation of judges and legal representatives that have been responsible for Human Rights violations; that the State of the Honduras guarantee the indemnification for damages and troubles caused to the communities that have suffered from forceful displacements; that the families of victims of repression and murder should be indemnified, particularly the case of the Associative Company Primero de Octubre, Liz Liz, Balfate, Colon. The agrarian reform was a prerequisite to freeing the peasants from feudal exploitation, rapidly developing agricultural productive forces and achieving prosperity of national industries and the national economy as a whole. The agrarian reform was urgently required to do away with the economic foundation of the reactionary forces, including landlords in rural villages and powerfully rouse the peasants, the driving force of the revolution, to the building of new Korea. That was why the President Kim Il Sung put forward the slogan “land to the tillers ” and a unique policy of agrarian reform.


The policy was aimed at enforcing the agrarian reform on the principle of confiscation without compensation and distribution without charge and confiscating the land of the Japanese , pro-Japanese elements and traitors to the nation, the land of landlords who had more than five hectares of fields and the land rented out to others. The WPK worked hard for the successful agrarian reform, true to the class policy of relying on the poor and hired peasants, isolating the rich peasants by allying with the middle peasants and liquidating the landlords.  ()


            In the countries of the Third World, with rare exceptions, it cannot be said that there were true agrarian reforms that helped peasants to get out of poverty. Even though it is there that the majority of poor peasants live, and where the weight of rural population is the most significant. In some countries they even represent the majority.  The absence of agrarian reforms is basically due to two factors:  a) The existence of a dependent, colonial capitalist model that developed the large properties with the exportation of primary products. b) The political power of rural oligarchies, large landowners, united with the local and foreign bourgeoisie.


In all the countries of the Third World where agrarian reform has not been implemented, grave agrarian problems persist, manifested in the continuing existence of large landed properties, the high concentration of land in the hands of a minority, and the use of the land only for exploitation and profit. Arable land has been bought in order to construct second houses for leisure, for the weekend. These problems are the cause of the high levels of poverty, the enormous social inequality, the worst conditions of life for the rural population, the chronic and economically dependent underdevelopment, and the general lack of perspectives for workers in general.


 Agrarian reform has to start with a broad process of distribution of land ownership.  In addition, considering the extent of development of capitalism and the exploitation of local economies, it needs to be undertaken in conjunction with changes in the economic, social, and political model. Ownership of land has to be submitted to the criteria that only those that work the land, depend on it and live there with their families, have the right to land. Land is a good of nature that needs to be used for the welfare of all.  Land is not, and cannot, be a marketable good that can be obtained in whatever quantity by those that have the financial means. We defend the principle of the maximum size of the social ownership of the land per family in relation to the reality in each country. Access to the land by peasants has to be understood as a guarantee for survival and the valorisation of their culture, the autonomy of their communities and a new vision on the preservation of natural resources for humanity and future generations. The land is patrimonium of the family and land titles only in the name of men have to be avoided. The struggle for the implementation of land reform cannot be cloaked as a peasants’ exclusive need or banner, but as a social solution for the whole of society’s problems. From this perspective, it would become viable if it were inserted as a claim, a struggle platform for wide popular sectors in our countries. The peasants alone, will not conquer land reform and rural changes. They have to create new forms of organization, associations and co-operatives, of peasants and of people living in rural areas around the management of the economy, of production, of financial systems, and of rural development, in agreement with the cultural and organisational traditions of our peoples and based on the principals of mutual support and agricultural co-operation. Agricultural co-operation in work and the social accumulation of capital is a natural process of the development of productive forces. But peasants have to adjust it and be creative on the different forms adjusting them, adequate to the reality of each region. And put its benefits to serve the improvement of the living conditions of the workers in the rural areas. In this moment in the history of humanity, where international financial capital wideness its domination and exploitation by the means of an excluding globalisation, it is essential that the peoples of the 3rd World, the workers in general, and specially the peasants articulated in Via Campesina get organized and also developing ways of communication, exchange and international struggles to face the common enemy.


  SUMMARY OF REPUBLIC ACT NO. 6657

 


Chapter 1: Preliminary Chapter. Section 2.


            It is the policy of the State to pursue a Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP). The welfare of the landless farmers and farm workers will receive the highest consideration to promote social justice and to move the nation towards sound rural development and industrialization, and the establishment of owner cultivatorship of economic-sized farms as the basis of Philippine agriculture.  To this end, a more equitable distribution and ownership of land, with due regard to the rights of landowners to just compensation and to the ecological needs of the nation, shall be undertaken to provide farmers and farm workers with the opportunity to enhance their dignity and improve the quality of their lives through greater productivity of agricultural lands.  The agrarian reform program is founded on the right of farmers and regular farm workers, who are landless, to own directly or collectively the lands they till or, in the case of other farm workers, to receive a share of the fruits thereof. To this end, the State shall encourage the just distribution of all agricultural lands, subject to the priorities and retention limits set forth in this Act, having taken into account ecological, developmental, and equity considerations, and subject to the payment of just compensation. The State shall respect the right of small landowners and shall provide incentives for voluntary land-sharing.  The State shall recognize the right of farmers, farm workers and landowners, as well as cooperatives and other independent farmers’ organization, to participate in the planning, organization, and management of the program, and shall provide support to agriculture through appropriate technology and research, and adequate financial, production, marketing and other support services.  The State shall apply the principles of agrarian reform or stewardship, whenever applicable, in accordance with law, in the disposition or utilization of other natural resources, including lands of the public domain, under lease or concession, suitable to agriculture, subject to prior rights, homestead rights of small settlers and the rights of indigenous communities to their ancestral lands.  The State may resettle landless farmers and farm workers in its own agricultural estates, which shall be distributed to them in the manner provided by law.  By means of appropriate incentives, the State shall encourage the formation and maintenance of economic-sized family farms to be constituted by individual beneficiaries and small landowners.  The State shall protect the rights of subsistence fishermen, especially of local communities, to the preferential use of communal marine and fishing resources, both inland and offshore. It shall provide support to such fishermen through appropriate technology and research, adequate financial, production and marketing assistance and other services. The State shall also protect, develop and conserve such resources. The protection shall extend to offshore fishing grounds of subsistence fishermen against foreign intrusion. Fishworkers shall receive a just share from their labor in the utilization of marine and fishing resources.  The State shall be guided by the principles that land has a social function and land ownership has a social responsibility. Owners of agricultural land have the obligation to cultivate directly or through labor administration the lands they own and thereby make the land productive. The State shall provide incentives to landowners to invest the proceeds of the agrarian reform program to promote industrialization, employment and privatization of public sector enterprises. Financial instruments used as payment for lands shall contain features that shall enhance negotiability and acceptability in the marketplace.  The State may lease undeveloped lands of the public domain to qualified entities for the development of capital-intensive farms, traditional and pioneering crops especially those for exports subject to the prior rights of the beneficiaries under this Act.


 


Chapter 2: Coverage: Section 4.


 


The Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Law of 1988 shall cover, regardless of tenurial arrangement and commodity produced, all public and private agricultural lands as provided in Proclamation No. 131 and Executive Order No. 229, including other lands of the public domain suitable for agriculture.  More specifically, the following lands are covered by the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program:


(a) All alienable and disposable lands of the public domain devoted to or suitable for agriculture. No reclassification of forest or mineral lands to agricultural lands shall be undertaken after the approval of this Act until Congress, taking into account ecological, developmental and equity considerations, shall have determined by law, the specific limits of the public domain;


b) All lands of the public domain in excess to the specific limits as determined by Congress in the preceding paragraph;


c) All other lands owned by the Government devoted to or suitable for agriculture;


d) All private lands devoted to or suitable for agriculture regardless of the agricultural products raised or that can be raised thereon.


 


Chapter 2: Coverage. Section. 7.


The DAR, in coordination with the PARC shall plan and program the acquisition and distribution of all agricultural lands through a period of ten (10) years from the effectivity of this Act.  Lands shall be acquired and distributed as follows:


Phase One: Rice and corn lands under Presidential Decree No. 27; all idle or abandoned lands; all private lands voluntarily offered by the owners for agrarian reform; all lands foreclosed by government financial institution; all lands acquired by the Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG); and all other lands owned by the government devoted to or suitable for agriculture, which shall be acquired and distributed immediately upon the effectivity of this Act, with the implementation to be completed within a period of not more than four (4) years;


Phase two: All alienable and disposable public agricultural lands; all arable public agricultural lands under agro-forest, pasture and agricultural leases already cultivated and planted to crops in accordance with Section 6, Article XIII of the Constitution; all public agricultural lands which are to be opened for new development and resettlement; and all private agricultural lands in excess of fifty (50) hectares, insofar as the excess hectarage is concerned, to implement principally the right of farmers and regular farm workers, who are landless, to own directly or collectively the lands they till, which shall be distributed immediately upon the effectivity of this Act, with the implementation to be completed within a period of not more than four (4) years.


Phase Three: All other private agricultural lands commencing with large landholdings and proceeding to medium and small landholdings under the following schedule:


a) Landholdings above twenty-four (24) hectares up to fifty (50) hectares, to begin on the fourth (4th) year from the effectivity of this Act and to be completed within three (3) years; and


b) Landholdings from the retention limit up to twenty-four (24) hectares, to begin on the sixth (6th) year from the effectivity of this Act and to be completed within four (4) years; to implement principally the right of farmers and regular farmworkers who are landless, to own directly or collectively the lands they till.


 


 


Chapter 7: Land Redistribution. Section 22.


The lands covered by the CARP shall be distributed as much as possible to landless residents of the same barangay, or in the absence thereof, landless residents of the same municipality in the following order of priority:


    (a) agricultural lessees and share tenants;
    (b) regular farm workers;
    (c) seasonal farm workers;
    (d) other farm workers;
    (e) actual tillers or occupants of public lands;
    (f) collective or cooperatives of the above beneficiaries; and
    (g) others directly working on the land.


 


Chapter 9: Support Services.


There is hereby created the Office of Support Services under the DAR to be headed by an Undersecretary.  The office shall provide general support and coordinative services in the implementation of the program, particularly in carrying out the provisions of the following services to farmer beneficiaries and affected landowners:


(1)  Irrigation facilities, especially second crop or dry season irrigation facilities;


(2)  Infrastructure development and public works projects in areas and settlement that come under agrarian reform, and for this purpose, the preparation of the physical development plan of such settlements providing suitable barangay sites, potable water and power resources, irrigation systems, seeds and seedling banks, post harvest facilities, and other facilities for a sound agricultural development plan. For the purpose of providing the aforecited infrastructure and facilities, the DAR is authorized to enter into contracts with interested private parties on long term basis or through joint venture agreements or build-operate-transfer scheme:


(3) Government subsidies for the use of irrigation facilities


(4)  Price support and guarantee for all agricultural produce;


(5)  Extending to small landowners, farmers and farmers’ organizations the necessary credit, like concessional and collateral-free loans, for agro-industrialization based on social collaterals like the guarantees of farmers’ organizations;


(6)  Promoting, developing and extending financial assistance to small and medium-scale industries in agrarian reform areas;


(7)  Assigning sufficient numbers of agricultural extension workers to farmers’ organization;


(8)  Undertake research, development and dissemination of information on agrarian reform, plants and crops best suited for cultivation and marketing, and low cost and ecologically sound farm inputs and technologies to minimize reliance on expensive and imported agricultural inputs;


(9)  Development of cooperative management skills through intensive training;chan robles virtual law library


(9)  Assistance in the identification of ready markets for agricultural produce and training in the other various aspects of marketing;


(10) Conduct and effective information dissemination system through the Department of Agriculture to promote marketing and minimize spoilage of agricultural produce and products;


(11)  Create a credit guarantee fund for agricultural landowners that will enhance the collateral value of agricultural lands that are affected or will be affected by coverage under the agrarian reform program; and


(12)  Administration, operation, management and funding of support services programs and projects including pilot projects and models related to agrarian reform as developed by the DAR. (Sec. 35)


In order to cover the expenses and cost of support, at least twenty-five percent (25%) of all appropriations for agrarian reform shall immediately be set aside and made available for this purpose: Provided, That for the next five (5) years, a minimum of one (1) Agrarian Reform Community (ARC) shall be established by the DAR, in coordination with the local government units, non-governmental organizations and people’s organizations in each legislative district with a predominant agricultural population: Provided, further, That the areas in which the ARCs are to be established shall have been fully subjected under this law.  For this purpose, an Agrarian Reform Community shall be defined as a barangay or a cluster of barangays primarily composed and managed by Agrarian Reform Beneficiaries who shall be willing to be organized and undertake the integrated development of an area and/or their organizations/cooperatives. In each community, the DAR, together with the agencies and organizations above mentioned, shall identify the farmers’ association, cooperative or their respective federations approved by the farmers-beneficiaries that shall take the lead in the agricultural development of the area. In addition, the DAR shall be authorized to package proposals and receive grants, aids and other forms of financial assistance from any source. (Sec. 36)


SEC. 37. Support Services to the Beneficiaries. – The PARC shall ensure that support services to farmer-beneficiaries are provided, such as:


    (a) Land surveys and titling;
    (b) Liberalized terms of credit facilities and production loans;
    (c) Extension services by way of planting, cropping, production and post-harvest technology transfer as well as marketing and management assistance and support to cooperatives and farmer organization;
    (d) Infrastructure such as access trails, mini-dams, public utilities, marketing and storage facilities; and
    (e) Research, production and use of organic fertilizers and other local substances necessary to farming and cultivation.


The PARC shall formulate policies to ensure that support services to farmer-beneficiaries shall be provided at all stages of land reform. The Bagong Kilusang Kabuhayan sa Kaunlaran (BKKK) Secretariat shall be transferred and attached to the LBP, for its supervision, including all its applicable and existing funds, personnel, properties, equipment and records. Misuse or diversion of the financial and support services herein provided shall result in sanction against the beneficiary guilty thereof, including the forfeiture of the land transferred to him or lesser sanctions as may be provided by the PARC, without prejudice to criminal prosecution.


The PARC, with the assistance of such other government agencies and instrumentalities as it may direct, shall provide landowners affected by the CARP and proper agrarian reform programs with the following services:


    (a) Investment information, financial and counseling assistance;


    (b) Facilities, programs and schemes for the conversion or exchange of bonds issued for payment of the lands acquired with stocks and bonds issued by the National Government, the central bank and other government institutions and instrumentalities;


    (c) Marketing of LBP bonds, as well as promoting the marketability of said bonds in traditional and non-traditional financial markets and stock exchanges;


    (d) Other services designed to utilize productively the proceeds of the sale of such lands for rural industrialization.


A landowner who invests in rural-based industries shall be entitled to the incentives granted to a registered enterprise engaged in a pioneer or preferred area of investment as provided for in the Omnibus Investment Code of 1987, or to such other incentives as the PARC, the LBP, or other government financial institutions may provide.


The LBP shall redeem a landowner’s LBP bonds at face value: Provided, that the proceeds thereof shall be invested in a BOI- registered company or in any agri-business or agro-industrial enterprise in the region where the landowner has previously made investments, to the extent of thirty percent (30%) of the face value of said LBP bonds, subject to guidelines that shall be issued by the LBP.  (Section 38)


The DAR shall carry out land consolidation projects to promote equal distribution of landholdings, to provide the needed infrastructure in agriculture, and to conserve soil fertility and prevent erosion.  (Sec. 39)


  CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK

            This study will be undertaken to determine if the implementation of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program in Marinduque has been a success based from the perception of the following group of respondents: the landowners, the tenants and the DAR personnel.   From the above summary of several literature, studies, and the summary of pertinent points in the CARP law; the researcher was able to conceptualize a framework focusing primarily on how the DAR is handling the implementation of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program in Marinduque for the period covering 1997 to 2001, and come up with sound recommendations to improve the CARP implementation in the coming years. 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 




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