While Christmas is supposedly for peace and merry making, a new war is obtaining today. This is a war between two groups of people who are supposed to be men of peace-the religious and political leaders. The recent animosities are all centered on the charter change (CHA-CHA) and the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP).
With vested interests prevailing in most arguments, we see no end in sight. Whether it will have a sad or happy ending, let’s leave it to fate, as usual. As we all know, when the supposedly men of peace quarrel, they do so in the name of peace and for the betterment of the lives of all Filipinos. Whether pro or con, they are both at it, allegedly, to conquer poverty.
Undeniably, poverty is the most overused, if not, the most abused word in the country today. In more instances, when crushed and mangled, all accusing fingers are pointed to one direction – poverty. Making matters worst is our propensity to focus on poverty at face value not its roots. Naturally, whatever initiatives we try to implement could not even put a tiny dent in its surface.
In our solitude, we can even wonder if all these acts are deliberate and are just orchestrated. The possibility that our government leaders are not seriously considering any solution to free them (the poor) from bondage would, in fact, even be a big truth. After all, having poverty makes it handy for politicians to have a platform in every election – poverty alleviation.
Once and for all, let us seriously look into the crisis besetting the country today. Then, we shall see if we do or don’t have programs that are supposedly designed to address them. Knowing that these crises are either man-made or due to man’s negligence, probably, some proposals are now being deliberated to reinforce what had been done so far.
On top of the list is food shortage. All these years, this concern has been provided with temporary solutions. The temporary solutions are a combination of rice importation and government subsidy through the National Food Authority (NFA). These initiatives as solutions are mere perceptions. It is just like a painkiller prescribed for a cancer patient. It might take out the pain momentarily but not cure it. Precariously, these temporarily solutions are disguising as permanent.
Lest we must forget, one of the more popular programs of all governments-that is from Ramon Magsaysay to Gloria Macapagal Arroyo- has been the land for the landless program. While these governments had termed it differently in their stay, the ultimate objective is the same. Supposedly, in trying to empower them by owning the lands they till, they will not only free themselves out of poverty, they shall be able to help this country attain food-sufficiency.
On the contrary, however, instead of helping this country be self-sufficient, we are continuing to subsidize this program. All these years, the beneficiaries have continued to behave like slaves when in fact, money-wise, this government had already spent a lot to free them. Worst, they’ve started to act like mendicants by raking in over P4.0 billion in annual subsidy.
With all these annual budgets for many years now, what has so far been achieved? Nothing much. Except for a few, some lands are abandoned. Others groups of beneficiaries who organized themselves into cooperatives are not cultivating them. Ironically, some of these beneficiaries are leasing out their lands and content themselves by simply earning rental.
A typical example of how useless this program is can be seen when one visits Manjuyod, Negros Oriental. The once mighty SyCip Plantation Inc. is not even a shadow of its old stature after being covered by CARP. Then, the beneficiaries organized themselves into a cooperative and managed the affairs of the entire hacienda. Unfortunately, the cooperative was unable to run it profitably. Consequently, Landbank reportedly foreclosed this huge property. Now, some portions are cultivated. Sarcastically, however, non-beneficiaries of CARP maintain these. These non-beneficiaries are mostly entrepreneurs and are profitably cultivating the same land where the beneficiaries failed.
This scenario isn’t difficult to comprehend. It simply means that they should abandon the mentality of slaves and bury the attitude of mendicants. They are now free to till the land they own and be successful entrepreneurs.
The Department of Agrarian reform (DAR) can’t help them in this concern. DAR is incompetent. Their incompetence and corrupt practices are so pronounced in unliquidated advances amounting to P1,471,392,800 and payments to alleged consultants of P646.5 million in 2006 alone. Whatever these consultants brought to this program, we are not aware of. What was obvious is, on top of this disbursement, DAR also paid P16.4 million in professional fees on the same year.
Curiously, on top of these disbursements, training expenses amounted to P174.6 million. Who, probably, have they trained? If it was spent for the beneficiaries, then why are they abandoning their lands or mismanaged their cooperatives.
From this development, what is imperative now is for this government to equip these beneficiaries with sound entrepreneurial skills through the able support of the Department of Trade and Industries. Let us train them also on new farming technologies through the guidance of the technical experts from the Department of Agriculture.
In all these undertakings, working capital is necessary. A thrust that Landbank, in coordination with the rural banks, can efficiently do by offering supervised loans to the beneficiaries.
Once and for all, this government should be straightforward. We all know that DAR is run by ideologues. While we all know that they need these ideologues’ political support because of their mass base, the beneficiaries’ betterment and self-sufficiency through entrepreneurship are paramount and necessary.
Frankly, without belittling themselves, history tells us that ideologues are proven failures in entrepreneurship. As business misfits, they could never turn these beneficiaries into budding entrepreneurs. Due to this predicament, DAR at this stage is so incompetent and unnecessary.
For your comments and suggestions, please email to foabalos@yahoo.com.