Court asked to stop release of CARP funds

MANILA, Philippines - A group of farmers has asked a court in Iloilo to stop the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) and the Land Bank of the Philippines (LBP) from releasing funds for the implementation of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP).

The farmers, mostly residents of Barotac Nuevo and Banate towns, said the remaining CARP funds should be allotted for the delivery of support services, agrarian justice delivery and other operational requirement, instead of spending it for land acquisition and distribution.

The petitioners said the five-year extension of the agrarian reform program expired on June 30, 2014.

The group, led by Primitiva and Henry Bayona, said DAR had acquired and distributed 6.9 million hectares of land as of December 2013.

The farmers want the DAR and the LBP to provide support services and take steps to complete the transfer of the lands supposedly awarded to them.

Primitiva, one of the beneficiaries, said she has paid in full the land awarded to her, but has yet to receive her land title as the government failed to conduct a segregation survey.

Aside from a possible boundary dispute, she said she could not enjoy the full benefits of ownership like using the land to apply for an agricultural loan.

Henry, who was identified as the actual tiller of a parcel of land for which he has been paying amortizations, said he has not received a certificate of land ownership award.