THE Philippine agrarian problem can be summarized in a few words — farmers who work the soil do not own the land they till thus, allowing the peasants land ownership will incentivize them towards greater productivity. This has been the textbook thought since the time of President Ramon Magsaysay, and adopted by Presidents Garcia and Macapagal.
It was former President Ferdinand Marcos Sr. who elevated this policy into some sort of dogma, adding drama to it by issuing in his own handwriting the Emancipation Act or Presidential Decree No. 27 supposedly to free the peasants from the bondage of the soil. Forty-nine years after this measure, our farmers are still generally poor and unproductive, do not own the land they till, and are deep in the quagmire of debt.
Trying hard to redeem his father’s land reform legacy, President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. made good a campaign promise to effect a debt condonation program for agrarian reform beneficiaries (ARBs). Last July, the President signed a law, Republic Act 11953 which condones P57.56 billion worth of debt of some 610,054 beneficiaries of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) who are cultivating a total of 1.173 million hectares of land.
‘President Marcos now faces the challenge of making the agrarian reform program under the New Agrarian Emancipation Act work, amid criticisms that the CARP has failed to empower the farmers…’
The condonation program included unpaid amortization, interest payments, surcharges and penalties of loans of ARBs secured under the CARP or other agrarian reform programs.
Weighing in on how the new law, which is also called the New Agrarian Emancipation Act, Sen. Imee Marcos said the measure’s implementing rules and regulations should no longer require the farmers to undergo “redundant revalidation” of their status or identities. This, she said, is a new hurdle that will delay the process of issuing land titles to the qualified beneficiaries.
“The spirit of the law is to facilitate the awarding of lands to agrarian reform beneficiaries. There should be no unnecessary revalidation for farmers to avail of the emancipation program. Let’s not extend what is already the longest-running land reform program in history,” she said, citing its inception in October 1972 through Presidential Decree 27.
The government has yet to fulfill the new law’s promise of land ownership for most farmers, with only 68,427 having received their land titles or 11.2 percent of the 610,054 identified ARBs. The Department of Agrarian Reform also reported that land titles already awarded to farmers cover some 85,853 hectares, or only 7.3 percent of the 1,173,102 hectares the government has allotted for distribution.
Senator Imee pointed out that farmers need their land titles to secure financing, without which they would not be productive. “Forced to borrow from informal lending channels that charge usurious interest rates, our farmers became poorer and less capable of uplifting the state of our agriculture,” she said.
President Marcos now faces the challenge of making the agrarian reform program under the New Agrarian Emancipation Act work, amid criticisms that the CARP has failed to empower the farmers despite the priority programs undertaken by various administrations after 1986.
His success will depend in part on how long the farmers need to wait to receive their much-sought after land titles that would open the door for more capital inputs and hopefully, greater harvests and income.
