MANILA, Philippines - Farmers' group Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP) on Monday scored the government's Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP), branding it as a sham.
KMP secretary general Antonio Flores claimed that vast tracks of land owned by rich and influential clans, including Hacienda Luisita of 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 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 have yet to be distributed to the farmers.
"The continuing land monopoly and control of a few landlord families show 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 the numerous tracks of land in Hacienda Luisita in Tarlac to more than 6,000 farmer-beneficiaries before the term of President Aquino ends in 2016.
Several farmers from vast haciendas in the country will troop today to DAR to protest the still non-distribution of lands in their respective areas.