Ma. Krysel S.

Pasion Economics with Taxation and Agrarian Reform

2AM Mam Bonifacio
Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program
At present time, Philippines slowly grow popularity as one of the newly industrialized economic
country along with the countries South Africa, Mexico, Brazil, China, India, Malaysia, Thailand, and
Turkey. As defined by Prof. em. Dr. Hans-Peter Benoehr of the Humboldt-University Law School of
Berlin, Germany newly industrialized economic countries (NICs) are nations with economies more
advanced and developed than those in the developing world, but not yet with the full signs of a
developed country.
The Philippine economy has been evolving from being agriculture based economy to a more
services and manufacturing economy. According to the World Bank around 32% of the countrys total
labor force is employed under the agriculture sector the economic return however is only 14% of the
GDP. While the industrial and service sector employs 32% and 47% and returns up to 30% and 56% of
the GDP respectively.
Despite this challenging transformation of dependency to the Agricultural sector, it is still a fact
that a lot of laborers in the sector are struggling. The idealistic Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program
aftereffects is very much thirst for.
The Agricultural Land Reform Code (R.A. No. 3844) was legislated during President Diosdado
Macapagals presidency. During that period it was recognized as the most comprehensive piece of
agrarian reform legislation because share tenancy practice in the country was eradicated. It reorganized
existing agencies involved in tasks related to land reform and realigned their functions towards attaining
the common objectives of the land reform program. It also necessitated the creation of the Land
Authority. The act was piloted in the provinces of Pangasinan, Bulacan, Nueva Ecija, Pampanga, Tarlac,
Occidental Mindoro, Camarines Sur and Misamis Oriental.
However, the landed Congress did not provide effort to come up with a separate bill to provide
funding for its implementation. According to the official records of the Bureau of Land Acquisition &
Distribution of the DAR, It acquired a total of 18,247.06 hectares or 99.29% out of the total scope of
18,377.05 hectares. The program benefited 7,466 farmer beneficiaries.
Under President Ferdinand E. Marcos administration, R.A. 6389 was enacted that had created
the Department of Agricultural Reform (DAR). It replaced the previous R.A. No. 3844, of the Land
Authority, which reorganized existing agencies involved in tasks related to land reform and realigned
their functions toward attaining the common objectives of the land reform program.
The department was retitled as the Ministry of Agrarian Reform as the country adopted the
parliamentary form of government in 1987. On July 26 of that same year following the People Power
Revolution, expansion of the power of the department was due to the structural and functional
organization pushed thru by the virtue of Executive Order No. 129-A.
Under the governance of President Corazon Conguangco-Aquino in 1988, the Comprehensive
Agrarian Reform Law was created of which gave birth to the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform
Program (CARP). Promotion of social justice and industrialization, providing of the mechanism for its
implementation, and for other purposes were its aims.
As defined by the Department of Agrarian Reform, redistribution of both public and private
agricultural lands to farmers who are landless, irrespective of tenurial arrangement is the basic
definition and primary objective of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP). In this
program, all lands exceeding seven hectares were bought by the government and sold to the landless
farmers. Owners of lands were paid through installment basis for 15 years. Its vision aspires the
improvement for the social and economic development of the agrarian reform beneficiaries to have a
better status in living.
The previously mentioned aim of CARP is also known as the Land Tenure Improvement is one of
the major programs. Support Services like infrastructure facilities, marketing assistance program, credit
assistance program, and technical support programs are also extended to the recipients. Facilitation,
resolution, and deliverance of Agrarian Justice is also a major component.
Executive Order No. 364 enacted by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo in 2004 renamed the
Department of Agrarian Reform to Department of Land Reform. It expanded the scope of the
department, thus making it accountable for all land reform in the country. Recognition of the ownership
of ancestral domain by indigenous peoples also became the responsibility of this new department,
under the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP). It also placed the Philippine Commission
on Urban Poor (PCUP) under its supervision and control.
In 2005, President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo signed Executive Order No. 456 which renamed the
Department of Land Reform back to Department of Agrarian Reform, since "the Comprehensive
Agrarian Reform Law goes beyond just land reform but includes the totality of all factors and support
services designed to lift the economic status of the beneficiaries."
In December 2008, the budget for CARP has expired and there remained 1.2 million hectares of
agricultural lands waiting to be acquired and distributed to farmers.
Republic Act 9700 also known as the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program Extension with
Reforms (CARPer) was signed in the year 2009 and was set to expire in 2014. It is an act amending
several provisions of Republic Act 6657, or the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Law (CARL) of 1988.
The CARPER primarily extends the land distribution program of CARP by five years. It also
redefines the scope of the program, and as the Philippine Daily Inquirer reports, does away with the
provision for voluntary land transfer, which was used by landlords to distribute the land under the
controversial Stock Distribution Option.
It also incorporates a new section into the existing CARL, Section 37-A, specifically mandating
the inclusion of equal support services for rural women and the establishment of a women's desk under
the DAR.
In an interview with Bulatlat, Rep. Rafael Mariano of the Anakpawis Party list also sharply
criticized the condition needed to implement Phase 3 of CARPER that 90% of those previously covered
by CARP should be distributed before the final phase can be implemented. Progressive party-list groups
also preferred the Genuine Agrarian Reform Bill (GARB) over the CARPER, which included more
amendments such as the free distribution of land.
Despite being signed into law on August 7, 2009, more than a year after the CARL expired, as of
September 2009 the DAR still has to release the implementing rules and guidelines for CARPER.
According to the Department of Agrarian Reform, at the present administration of President
Benigno Simeon Noynoy Aquino III, that the department is bent on sustaining the gains of agrarian
reform through its three major components which are Land Tenure Improvement (LTI), Program
Beneficiaries Development (PBD) and Agrarian Justice Delivery (AJD). It was also promoted that
together with the efforts to fight graft and corruption by the President, it is imperative to have
institutional reforms within DAR as a complement to the abovementioned DAR components as well as
give credence, transparency and accountability at all sectors of the DAR bureaucracy.

References:
About the Department. (2013). Retrieved from Department of Agrarian Reform:
http://www.dar.gov.ph/about-us/about-the-department
Agriculture, value added (% of GDP). (2014). Retrieved from The World Bank:
http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NV.AGR.TOTL.ZS/countries
Benoehr, H.-P. (2013, 1 16). Introduction to International Economic Law. Retrieved from Humboldt-
University Law School : http://benoehr.rewi.hu-
berlin.de/doc/05_Fuer_2013_Developing_2013_PDF_13_01_16_.pdf
Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program. (2014). Retrieved from Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comprehensive_Agrarian_Reform_Program
Department of Agrarian Reform. (2014). Retrieved from Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Department_of_Agrarian_Reform
Developing Country. (2014). Retrieved from Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Developing_country
Employment in agriculture (% of total employment). (2014). Retrieved from The World Bank:
http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SL.AGR.EMPL.ZS
What is CARP (Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program), or RA 6657? (2013). Retrieved from
Department of Agrarian Reform: http://www.dar.gov.ph/ra-6657-what-is-carp-comprehensive-
agrarian-reform-program