Farmers call CARP a sham

MANILA, Philippines - Farmers' group Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP) on Monday said that the government's comprehensive agrarian reform program is a sham.

 

KMP secretary general Antonio Flores claimed that vast tracks of land owned by rich and influential clans, including Hacienda Luisita, owned by the family of President Benigno Aquino III, have remained undistributed despite the CARP implementation.

 

"It’s been 25 years of the government’s CARP and still, vast haciendas remain intact and undistributed," Flores said.

 

Aside from the 6,000 hectare Haciend Luisita, Flores said tracks of land which have yet to be distributed under the CARP include Hacienda Looc and Hacienda Roxas in Batangas, Hacienda Yulo in Laguna, the vast haciendas in Bondoc Peninsula, Danding Cojuangco's haciendas in Negros, and the DOLE and Del Monte farms in Mindanao.

 

"The continuing land monopoly and control of a few landlord families shows that the bogus CARP was not meant to break land monopoly and was instead implemented only to appease peasant unrest in the countryside and to create an illusion of land reform," Flores added.

 

"What actually transpired in the 25 years of CARP is the buy-and-sell transaction between the government, the DAR (Department of Agrarian Reform) and the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, and the supposed farmer beneficiary," he said.

 

The DAR has earlier vowed to distribute parts of Hacienda Luisita to more than 6,000 farmer-beneficiaries before the term of President Aquino ends in 2016.

 

Several hacienda farmers in the country will troop today to the Department of Agrarian Reform's office in Quezon City to protest its alleged failure to implement the CARP.