Are we done with CARP?

Did the BBM administration quietly declare that our agrarian reform program is over?

The Department of Justice (DOJ) has rendered a legal opinion that seems to indicate our decades-long experiment with the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) is effectively done. Indeed, because of a “sunset clause” in the law, it was over as of June 30, 2014.

Here is how DOJ sees it:

“The mandate of DAR to acquire and distribute private agricultural lands in excess of the retention limit notably has an expiry date, per Section 5, in relation to Section 7, of RA 6657, as amended, which is June 30, 2014.

“This statutory cutoff is what is commonly referred to as a ‘sunset clause,’ which is a legislative provision that establishes a specific date or condition upon which the effectivity of a statute or regulatory authority automatically terminates, unless the same is renewed or extended by subsequent legislative action…

“A sunset clause serves as an important accountability tool, ensuring that time-bound governmental programs remain aligned with legislative intent and public interest…

“In light of the sunset clause provided for by the law, this Department so holds that CARP ceased to be effective as of June 30, 2014. This simply means that all provisions of RA  6657, including the retention limits on land ownership, cease to be effective and become functus officio as well.

“As the history of CARP will show, Congress intended the same to operate within a limited statutory period of ten years initially, which was subsequently extended and given a statutory cutoff of June 30, 2014.”

The DOJ opinion was sparked by a request from the Land Registration Authority for a legal opinion on whether the requirement for a Land Transfer Clearance from the Department of Agrarian Reform is still “a necessary requirement for the valid registration of transfers of agricultural lands, in light of the lapse of the effectivity period for the acquisition and distribution of agricultural lands provided under RA 6657, otherwise known as the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Law of 1988, as amended by RA 9700.”

From what I gathered from knowledgeable sources, there was an earlier DAR draft Administrative Order that proposed substantially the same conclusion. The DAR Secretary apparently signed that draft on Jan. 27, 2026 but it was not released.

The LRA sought the DOJ Opinion on Feb. 18, 2026 and the DOJ issued Opinion 16 on March 9, 2026.

My source thinks this sequence reasonably suggests that the non-release of the DAR order and the later request for a DOJ Opinion could be related. The administration may have chosen the DOJ Opinion route to give the policy broader executive authority.

Consider this: the law expired 12 years ago but three administrations continued to implement it. So much for governance. Probably it is because agrarian reform remains an emotional issue among many groups who romantically view it as a social justice necessity.

But it had been a failure. It miserably failed to deliver on its social justice objective. CARP also proved the macroeconomic theory that giving someone a land asset without capital, technology and market access does not cure poverty.

CARP has also been a hindrance to achieving our food security goals as it prevents us from benefiting from economies of scale. The DOJ Opinion will now enable agribusiness to make the right investments toward our food security with greater efficiency made possible by economies of scale that the five-hectare limit prevented.

Prominent economists, notably Dr. Raul Fabella, a National Scientist, criticized CARP’s long-term economic layout. They argue that CARP unintentionally impoverished farmers through deep structural restrictions.

In a paper written by Dr. Fabella, he noted that “by 2014, 5.05 million of the 5.37 million hectares of the targeted agricultural land shall have been distributed. As a program for land asset equity, it shall have accomplished 99 percent of its target, whopper of a success for a government program.

“As a program to advance the economic welfare of farmers, it has accomplished the opposite of its stated goals. Productivity has fallen drastically in coconut and sugar and poverty incidence among agrarian reform beneficiaries in agrarian reform communities stood at 54 percent in 2011 higher than for farmers in general. CARP and CARPER created a new class of people: the landed poor.”

For one, our implementation of the agrarian reform program caused a destruction of the credit market that farmers needed. Because CARP made it illegal for farmers to sell or mortgage their land for 10 years, and capped ownership at five hectares, banks stopped accepting agricultural land titles as collateral. Rural financial markets collapsed, leaving farmers with land but zero access to formal credit or capital to buy seeds, fertilizers or machinery.

Without capital, small individual farms could not scale up and were kept in bondage to usurious agricultural traders. Agricultural productivity in major cash-crop sectors like coconut and sugar plummeted drastically, as large plantations were broken up into fragments too small to remain competitive.

Dr. Fabella calls for “the return of the market in rural production: let productive farmers legally cultivate 10 or more hectares as the market dictates; let SEC-registered firms legally operate agro-industrial farms without land ceiling…

“Poverty reduction requires the shift of resources and manpower from informal to formal sectors. CARP has done the opposite.”

No, we are not done with agrarian reform. We are done with land fragmentation and redistribution and limits on land ownership. We are done with Land Transfer Clearance, a source of rampant corruption.

But we are not done with helping the farmers get irrigation, microcredit and farm-to-market roads which have so far been limited unless funded by foreign aid.

As Dr. Fabella noted: “To echo the architect of the great Chinese Economic Miracle, Deng Xiaoping: It is time to stop redistributing poverty!”

Boo Chanco’s email address is [email protected]. Follow him on X @boochanco