CEBU - For Department of Agrarian Reform Assistant Secretary Dominador Andres, termination of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program has the potential to spark a “mass revolution” against the government.
Andres said that private land owners have the highest tendency to take back their properties because the termination of CARP funding leaves them unpaid for the land that the government has taken from them compulsorily.
Considering the bureaucracy in government, several land owners have reportedly not been given just compensation in exchange for the land taken from them for public use.
At present, there are reportedly still about 1.5 million hectares of land to be distributed, which counts for 700,000 CARP beneficiaries.
Should the CARP be terminated, Andres said these beneficiaries would be robbed off their chance of a better life.
The non-extension of CARP funding would reportedly kill the “heart and soul” of CARP, which is the Land Acquisition and Distribution component, as it would lessen the area of land coverage.
Andres said terminating CARP would also take away the protection of beneficiaries from land owners who would want to regain possession over their properties, especially from beneficiaries who have yet to fully pay for their lands.
These scenarios, Andres said, have the potential to entice farmers to join the National Democratic Front due to poverty and hopelessness.
“Without agrarian reform, there is no peace in the countryside,” Andres said, adding that the reason why CARP was created during the term of former president Corazon Aquino was in the hope to wipe out insurgency.
If CARP will be terminated, poor farmers who have been working hard tilling the land will feel that they have lost the support of government, or worse, that the government no longer cares for them.
Cebu Provincial Agrarian Reform Officer Stephen Leonidas also shares Andres’ sentiments, saying the termination of CARP will lead to a “wide social unrest,” as vulnerable farmers would seek help from radical groups.
Leonidas said the reason why the military is closely working with DAR is to help members of the NPA to return to mainstream society and to prevent potential members from joining the radical group. — Jessica Ann R. Pareja/JMO (THE FREEMAN)