COMPREHENSIVE AGRARIAN REFORM PROGRAM OF 1988 ( R.A.

6657)

Beneficiaries of CARP
As stated in DAR AO 09 (series of 2011), the basic qualifications of farmers/tillers in order to
be qualified are as follows:
(1) landless as defined by RA 6657;
(2) Filipino citizen;
(3) permanent resident of the barangay and/or municipality where the landholding;
(4) at least fifteen (15) years of age at the time of identification, screening and selection;
and
(5) willing, able, and equipped with the aptitude to cultivate and make the land
productive.
RA 6657 lists down qualified CARP beneficiaries in order of priority:
(1) agricultural lessees and share tenants;
(2) regular farmworkers;
(3) seasonal farmworkers;
(4) other farmworkers;
(5) actual tillers/occupants of public lands;
(6) collectives/cooperatives of the above beneficiaries; and
(7) others directly working on the land. RA 6657 also provides that the BARC11 and the
DAR should assist the potential CARP beneficiaries in listing or registration as potential
beneficiaries.

KEY POLICIES OF CARP

Coverage: CARL provided for the coverage of all agricultural lands and natural resources and
included both tenants and regular farm workers (who had been excluded as beneficiaries in the
previous reform Codes).

Exemption: Excluded under the coverage of CARP are military reservations, penal colonies,
educational and research fields, “timberlands”, undeveloped hills with 18 degrees slope and
church areas. Permanent exclusions have been granted on private farms directly, permanently and
exclusively used for prawn farming or fishponds and for commercial livestock and poultry
raising.10

Retention limit: CARL further lowered the ceiling on land ownership of agriculture lands to 5
hectares and allowed additional 3 hectares for each heir (of at least age 15 and actually tilling the
land or directly managing it).

Land valuation and owner compensation: CARL required just compensation on land, which
based land valuation on the following: (1) capitalized net income; (2) comparable sales; and (3)
market or zonal value. Land valuation is primarily the responsibility of the Land Bank which
appraises the property based on the land valuation formula provided by the Department of
Agrarian Reform. Landowners may appeal valuation to the special agrarian court or in the
judiciary court, which is the final arbiter in the determination of just compensation.

Beneficiary repayments and subsidy: Lands that have been paid by government through Land
Bank (i.e., compensable lands) are amortized by beneficiaries over 30 years with 6% annual
interest. Public A&D lands are non-compensable based on the Public Lands Act. Also, non-public
lands except those foreclosed properties of GFIs and the land estates.

Non-land transfers: These are land transfers that do not involve actual transfer of land
ownership but changes or improvement of property rights over land assets. The mechanisms
include: (1) Leasehold Operation (LHO), which is a lease agreement between landowner and
tenant applied to agriculture lands not covered by CARP (e.g. below 5 hectares or on retained
agriculture lands)

Modes to Acquisition of Private Lands: CARL provides for various acquisition modes that
includes:
(1) operation land transfer (OLT), used for rice and corn lands under PD 27;
(2) compulsory acquisition, where government expropriate private lands whether or not
landowner cooperates;
 (3) voluntary offer to sell (VOS), providing incentive for the landowners to voluntarily offer their
land for coverage by raising the cash portion of landowners’ compensation by five percent and
corresponding 5% decrease in the bonds portion; and
(4) voluntary land transfer (VLT), allows landowners to directly transfer their lands to tenants
and workers under mutually agreed terms between peasants and landowners on land value and
payment terms.

Problems with the Execution of CARP

Lack of a central database on land and land ownership information:
This could have understated the number of identified lands for distribution.
The landowners make it difficult for DAR to secure and evaluate ownership documents
and sometimes file legal cases to delay and prevent the inclusion of their lands in the
program.
The landowners make it difficult to secure and evaluate ownership documents and
sometimes file legal cases to delay and prevent the inclusion of their lands in the program.
Identification of CARP beneficiaries:
No Registry of farmers, agricultural workers and tenants in the country. Beneficiaries are
either pre-identified by landowner or identified through listing method and validation with
landowners.
It is assumed that the contracting beneficiary is the legitimate beneficiary. However, it
might happen that the contract is between the landowner and persons (e.g. relatives,
friends) that act as dummies of the landowner.

THE SUCCESS OF CARP

It is not super successful only understated. The DAR and DENR claim that the past 25 years of
CARP has led to the distribution of 8.25 million hectares, just a shade below 90 percent of its
actual target of 9.21 million. These lands were parceled out to 5.43 million beneficiaries.
However, these accomplishments are highly contested. If we were to compare these figures
with the original scope at the beginning of the program, DAR would have accomplished 80
percent of its target, with a balance of at least 2 million hectares.

Longest-Running Distribution Program In The World

Incomes of agrarian reform beneficiaries were higher than the percentage of regional
poverty (18 percent to 122 percent) Incomes of agrarian reform beneficiaries were higher than
regional poverty thresholds across the board, ranging from a low of 18 percent to a high of 122
percent. The surveys prove that agrarian reform can succeed in the Philippines given the correct
and adequate support granted by a developmental state.

THE FAILURES OF CARP

More Than 500 Extra-Judicial Killings The Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP)
ended with a farmers’ group rating it as the bloodiest with 664 farmers getting killed in the name
of land reform.
Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP) chairman Rafael Mariano said that in four years
of the Aquino administration, 96 farmers have been killed, as against nine during the Arroyo
administration, while 568 others were victims of agrarian-related extra-judicial killings.
Unsolved Cases Regarding Agrarian Disputes
The KMP cited figures from the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) indicating that
from July 1987 to June 2012, the agency processed 494,945 agrarian law implementation (ALI)
cases.
KMP said the Sentro para sa Tunay na Repormang Agraryo (Sentra), an institution
rendering legal and paralegal services to farmers facing agrarian disputes, is handling more than
200 cases involving 15,500 farmers charged with different cases ranging from exemption from
agrarian reform coverage, land-use conversion, forced eviction, and criminalized agrarian
disputes.
Philippines has the lowest value-added per hectare compared to our asean neighbors
Poverty is still endemic
 COMPREHENSIVE AGRARIAN REFORM PROGRAM EXTENSION WITH
REFORMS OF 1988 ( R.A. 9700)

December 2008 the budget for CARP expired

Section 30 of RA 9700 or CARPER

Beneficiaries of CARPER

 Land Farmers
 Agricultural Lessees
 Tenants
 Regular, seasonal and other farmworkers

Tenants and regular farmworkers will receive 3 hectares each

Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR)

Qualifications:
 Must be at least 15 years old
 A resident of the barangay where the land holding is located
 Own no more than 3 hectares of agricultural land.

SIGNIFICANT PROVISIONS

SECTION 1 - Gender-Sensitive Agrarian Reform

Section 1 of the CARPER law states that "The State shall recognize and enforce, consistent
with existing laws, the rights of rural women to own and control land, taking into consideration
the substantive equality between men and women as qualified beneficiaries, to receive a just share
of the fruits thereof, and to be represented in advisory or appropriate decision-making bodies.
These rights shall be independent of their male relatives and of their civil status." Rural women
will have a representative in the highest policy making body of DAR – the Presidential Agrarian
Reform Council (PARC).

Section 21 – Budget
Budget – Section 21 amending Section 63 for CARL states that the budget allocated for
the 5-year extension is 150 Billion pesos which will be sourced from three funds: Agrarian Reform
Fund, General Appropriations Acts (GAA) and other sources of funding like privatization of
government asset, foreign donors, etc. This budget is the largest per year in the history of CARP.

Section 26 – Congressional Oversight Committee

Section 26 of the CARPER law created a joint Congressional Oversight Committee to
oversee and monitor the implementation of the act, which will be composed of the Chairpersons
of the Committee on Agrarian Reform of both Houses of Congress;
three Members of the House of Representatives; and
·three Members of the Senate of the Philippines
to be designated respectively by the Speaker of the House of Representatives and the President of
the Senate of the Philippines

Section 30 – Resolution of Case

Any case and/or proceeding involving the implementation of the provisions of Republic
Act No. 6657, as amended, which may remain pending on June 30, 2014 shall be allowed to
proceed to its finality and be executed even beyond such date.
Section 73 – Conversion of Land
Under Section 24 of CARPER Law, amending Section 73 of R.A. No. 6657:
Any conversion by, any landowner of his/her agricultural land into any non-agricultural use with
intent to avoid the application of this Act to his/her landholdings and to dispossess his/her
bonafide tenant farmers
THE SUCCESS OF CARPER
In 2003, 15 years into the program, studies funded by the United Nations Development
Programme (UNDP), AsDB, FAO, European Union (EU) and the Philippine Government, had
shown that poverty incidence among program beneficiaries declined from 47.6 to 45.2 percent,
while increasing among their non-participating counterparts from 55.1 to 56.4 percent.

The Official Gazette released an update on the accomplishments in the field of agrarian
reform as of June 30, 2014.
As of December 31, 2013, the government has acquired and distributed 6.9 million hectares of
land, equivalent to 88% of the total land subject to CARP." Of this area, the Aquino
administration has distributed a total of 751,514 hectares, or 45% of the total landholdings to be
distributed to the farmer beneficiaries left under this administration. From this, DAR has
distributed 412,782 hectares and DENR has already distributed 338,732 hectares.

THE FAILURES OF CARPER

No Real Redistribution Of Land. The CARPER also mandates that private agricultural lands
— the type that the Arroyos and the Cojuangcos own — can only be distributed if the original
CARP managed to distribute 90 percent of its target. But CARP, despite the two decades of its
implementation, only distributed less than half of its target.

Rejected amendments. progressive party-list bloc in Congress proposed amendments to the bill
during the second reading but the sponsors and the majority flatly rejected their proposals.
CARP gives an option to landowners to choose “all other arrangements alternative to the physical
distribution of lands, such as production or profit-sharing, labor administration, and distribution
of shares of stocks which will allow beneficiaries to receive a just share of the fruits of the lands
they work.”
The KMP asserts that this provision undermines the intent of any agrarian-reform program.
The failures of CARPER

Class Struggle. For as long as landlords and big businessmen hold the political and economic
power, the just struggle of Filipino farmers for land will continue. By not implementing a genuine
agrarian-reform program that will pave the way for social justice, the Arroyo regime has, in effect,
validated the need for the agrarian revolution that is already raging in the countryside.
 GEED 10033
Readings in Philippine History

Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program of 1988 ( R.A. 6657)

and the
Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program Extension with Reforms of 2009 (
R.A. 9700)

Narrative Report

Submitted by:

Camara, Lawrence
Canlas, Cyryll
Castañeda, Ashley
Castillo, Stephen Joy
Centeno, Mark Daniel
Cuenco, Jean Lucille
De Jesus, Daniela
De Len, Sofia Bien
Dela Cruz, Camille
De Vera, Scandynevia
Dumpang, Daisy
Furton, Jimmuel

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