Why haven’t land reform worked? 20+ years passed, the farmers should have been the owner of the land already. Poor farmers don’t have money to buy seeds,fertilizers and other equipment to till the land. They have to depend on the landowners. Even if they will own the land (through CARP) The farmers can’t sell the land. So its better for them just to remain tenants to the landlords so they could get money for their farming.

In short, CARP is useless for farmers without capital. A better law should make farmers and landowners have 50/50 share on the ownership of the land. Capital given by the richer landlord to the farmers should be paid back after harvest, and profits divided equally.

You do not expect much from these Oligarch government. Majority of our Legislature are affluent people. However, how they arrive to their wealth is something else.

Juan Ponce Enrile is the epitome of these Oligarch. He categorical stated in the Senate infront of millions of viewers that CARP is a failure.

“Instead of increase crop production, the tenant recepient has lower yeild than the Hacinderous who has access to capital and technology.”

What Juan Ponce Enrile, together with other landed Congressman means is that, never mind the lives of the poor landless farmers. Let them remain forever shachled to their landlords.
Never mind the filth and squalor of their homes. Never mine the hopelessness, the poverty and hunger these people are enduring. Never mind the human degradation. Never these tenant farmers who are treated exactly like SLAVES!

This Oligarch government of ours has betrayed the very people it should serve– the less in material things should have more of Justice.

Juan Ponce Enrile, during the Martial Law, as head of DND, sent Gringo Honasan and Red Kapunan to Isabela “TO FIGHT THE INSURGENCY, the communist, the radicals, the leftist. Our government has so many terms whenever they want to rob-out those who thinks different.

But the question lingering in my mind up to now is during the Martial Law Years, is it possible that Gringo Honasan and Red Kapunan were eliminating the leftist, or this is just an excuse for Enrile to accumulate so much land in Isabela by exterminating the farmers who tilt the land since time immemorial.

A friend of mine, who also owns big farm in Isabela once told me that while he and his group were inspecting their agricultural land, while they have their horse drink water on the creek, a military helicopter appeared from nowhere, and was circling around with a 50 caliber machine gun aimed at them. Guess what would have happened if the 50 caliber machine gun fired.

Offen times, big farm owners carries their own long rifle for self defense when ever they round their big farm.

Was the military helicopter mistook them as NPAs with horses and has long fire arms? Life and death was such a few seconds apart at that moment.

What a brazen lie, our Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile made when he said that CARP IS A FAILURE when in reality, it is a GOVERNMENT FAILURE!

In the formulation of CARP, it incorporates the different assistance our government should provide the tenant recipient. The following measures where haphazardly implemented.

1. Farm to Market Road
2. Fertilizer subsidy
3. Latest Technical Information to modern farming..
4. Subsidized insecticides
5. hybrid seeds
6. constructing and maintaining irrigation and at affordable rate.
7. Marketting assistance like NFA and Cooperatives.

All these should have been provided by the government to help the tenant recepience.

On the Fertilizer scum, this is the very symbol of a corrupt government. Instead of the funds reaching the tenant recipients, the funds were diverted to the politicians and other corrupt officials.

We also have a self appointed expert with is blabber mouth heading our Department of Agriculture.

In short, it is the corrupt government’s failure to implement a real land reform CONTRARY TO WHAT SENATOR ENRILE WAY STATING.

In the present corrupt government, it is next to impossible to implement a genuine land reform because many of our Legislature are Hacinderous.

Sayang lang ang budget ng CARP. INUTIL!

Social Injustice is equivalent of greediness in the part of hacienderos. CARP is useles if these hacienderos like arroyos et al. are not giving their piece of land to our beloved hard working farmers. I’m not suprise if the government ignored them. what’s new?

thank you. your article emphasizes the injustice in our country particularly regarding rights of farmers. farmers do need to make dramatic demonstrations of protests to awaken government about their duties on agrarian reform implementation. in just about everything that the ordinary citizen deserves as provided by laws need to be amplified in some form of drama. officials need to be shaken from their complacency , or to be stopped with their hidden agenda that serve only their personal or political interests. sad indeed but until maturity of attitude and honesty in proper governance is reached, every filipino of this generation will just have to make the sacrifice of marching to the streets.

Let this be a lesson to any would-be investor. Buying property in the Philippines is a Big No-No

We are now experiencing hunger because the CARP bred lazy farmers. Many beneficiaries only want to get lands to sell. They are supported by smart legal and para-legal sectors. Thse lands became less productive. These land can never sustain productive growth in the hands of pseudo farmers.

Justice is to collect all agricultural lands in a pool and lease it out for farm use only.

Equally contributory to perilous injustice are the CARP people. Take the case of a 10 hectares plus lot in Ilocos Norte that the CARP placed on Notice of Coverage with hundreds of heirs written all over the title. I guess they only want to please the boss and disregard the pleas of the heirs. Until now an heir writing to the DAR about its wrongful error has not received a reply for almost half a decade now. Maybe they dont know how to read titles and dont know how to write back.

200 hectares divided to 200 beneficiaries equals poor filipinos that are as poor as before. They will sell their rights sooner or later. Government cannot be repaid.

200 hectares times P150,000.00 [per hectare at least] equals 30 million pesos dole out shouldered by Juan dela Cruz. And we have ump billions of such dole outs already.

You call that good? I call it politics.

And politics devoid of sound economics is stupid politics - the woe of Juan dela Cruz, while our politicians squable about power riding on the pawns and the gullibles!

Social justice applies only to victims of land grabbing. Why do you think one guy had 200 hectares? It was because of these miserable and destitute farmers who sold their rights and small lots in the first place!!!

I came from Negros, let’s put it these ways:

First, let’s set aside this pity-the-poor-thing craps, social-justice rhetoric, and go to the heart of it. Strictly speaking, most landowners in Negros no longer own land. Many of the lands have been “foreclosed” already by banks, long time ago. But by law, until banks have completed foreclosure proceedings these ‘land owners’ exercise ownership of land, are rightful owners of land.

Practical losers have already made money by entering their lands to Voluntary Offer to Sell or VOS which is land reform from landowners’ initiative, netting money out of the process. While congress is thinking of scrapping CARP, VOS which is considered for scrapping too [for so many reported anomalies] has been extended.

Second, there are land owners who cling to [foreclosed] lands when they could have made money of them. Their reasons could be out of old sentimental attachment to heirlooms. Or, maybe they dream, or some of them are simply serious at farming and at recovering the land. Now came politics about farm workers to own the land – COMPULSORY land reform targeted at this type of landowners. If you think it is a good idea, fine. But I think land reform should apply only to [1] idle lands that need to be productive [2] tenancy lands which is the original concept of ‘land to the tiller’.

From economic point of view, breaking up one already productive big farm-unit into many small farm units is de-productive. The new farm units naturally became self-subsistence farming which is good only in a situation where we started with hungry people who had nothing to do and have nowhere to go [applicable to idle lands]. Self-subsistence farming solves such social problem. [I heard one scheme there is to turn one big land-reform unit to corporate farming which is also fancied by some as “communal” or “socialist farming”]

We have whole cities to feed. There are the industrial workers, white collar workers, and all the urban dwellers, which do not cultivate but are to be feed. Whatever, land reform should consider all them or it won’t gain support. Add to that, that billions have already been thrown into land reform without returns except bringing us back to where it all started – at square one. Juan dela Cruz is not rich to be burdened by a program that has been un-sustainable just for politics of some.

Yes, let’s talk about social justice. About land grabbing which is land grabbing. About low wages and salaries. They make more sense than breaking one productive unit into smaller impractical units.

Magbigayan mga pre’. Ang karunongan at bagay-bagay ay di dapat ipagkait sa ninomang magnanasang makamit. Balang araw nyo’ ring maranasan, eh karunongan at bagay na ikinaitan, t’yak sa piling nang yong kapwa, alipin ka parin. Peace.

The article about the 39th anniversary of the CPP-NDF is not true.The SAMAHANG PARTIDO KOMUNISTA was established in a house in Metro Manila as an association of allied socialists and communists in the Philippines.They were concerned about the socio-political as well as economic conditions that plague our country.This was established in 1973 there was no communist party in the Philippines that was established in 1964 by Mr.Joma Sison.Sison came from Taiwan and lived in the Philippines and only became active as a Communist sympathizer as part of a plot by then Gen.Ramos,Sec.Enrile and the Military Advisory Group to gain political power after the Marcos regime which they knew would fall.The readers have a rigth to know the truth about history because people are trying to rewrite history and lie so as to gain financial and political advantage.The SAMAHAN NG PARTIDO KOMUNISTA 1973 went underground and became active again in 1983.

The VFA and MDT is not a good treaty and agreement for the Republic of the Philippines.Our country is supposed to be friendly to China and the U.S. and the West.Our constitution prohibits military alliances including the presence of military bases of a foreign country within our territory.

Well, since some people have already talked about “socialist farming” back there in Negros, I think it can be done but not by killing the “Landlord”, burning properties, and declaring the land to belong to the people. Most of the lands already belong to the people if you don’t know it.

State simply completes foreclosure proceedings to evict former owners and to appoint farm administrators without much ados and shake-ups. The same apply to all previous land reforms where poor, helpless beneficiaries are already defaulted for non-payment – [hindi ‘yon pamigay libre ni Juan dela Cruz] Land reform contracts should be invalidated and former beneficiaries may apply for work or they can go somewhere else.

Corporate farming by land reform beneficiaries is corporate farming and cannot be confused with Socialism. Ownership is limited to beneficiaries. It is within private enterprise. “Socialist farming” in the other hand means that the owner is Juan dela Cruz, administered for him by the State.

“Nationalized corporations” or Socialism under the present situation? I, for one, thumb-down not really optimistic about it. In fact it has already been tried under similar situation. Trust- Farm administrators were no more than fattening pigs at the expense of the Juan dela Cruz! No-no-no, not unless Filipinos have diminished graft and corruption by its servants who can act like the masters, and there is national discipline!

The Philippines Baselines Bills is against the UNCLOS and against the Constitution.The people must know the truth about why this bill was favored and immediately passed by Congress it is because of some businessmen from Taiwan who have a special interest about the Fossil fuels in the Spratlys.This should be properly investigated because the Republic of the Philippines is manipulated by greedy businessmen.

projects, are milking cows for the corrupt. the fertilizer scam of jocjoc bolante said it all. when you see roads and irrigation being developed you can imagine the pockets bulging. and these officials have the gall by placing their pictures on the billboards as if to remind us to be grateful to them for doing their jobs - and pocketing a few here and there.
but what’s worst is we elect them again !

And since we are talking about VFA I think there is some weak arguments in there. Following some of them, I have the impression that they mean that if Filipinos can have prison custody of visiting criminals then VFA is okay. Maybe the issue to be settled, once and for all, is whether VFA in the whole itself is doing good or no good to this country.

There is the same weakness of then arguments against JEPEPA. It was opposed on one of the premises that it will make the country a “dumping ground of toxic waste”. So by removing “toxic waste” it is then okay to dump waste!

We did not have “toxic waste” in Smokey Mountains. None in Payatas dumpsite or in Carmona. But, as we have seen, Filipinos have hard time agreeing among themselves for any of those places or any place because garbage is garbage. Garbage itself, incinerated or land filled, is TOXIC! It needs a magician to end this problem because at present, the problem can only be minimized with no satisfactory solution to it. There is only the least harmful solution to it. It can also be aggravated.

P.R.C. BUYS American “garbage” worth US$ 6B a year. But they are segregated Aluminum, Paper, Plastics, etc. and not raw garbage Filipinos saw in their port. And Filipinos have better watch out because some Filipinos can make money pulling in raw garbage of the world [for free] into the Philippines because there is money [multi-billion-industries] for them in that.

so,ano po kaya ang maganda o magaling na gawin? kung sa isang maliit na bayan,e makapagsisimulang iayos ang pamamahala,e maaaring me-pag-asa.
1.sa isang maliit na barangay,na kung saan e magkakakilala at alam ang mga isyu ng kanilang lugar,at hayaang bukas at malayang gumulong ang mga pamamaraan nila,at hayaang makita at mai-record kung ano man ang nagaganap,upang maging basehan ng paghanap ng mga solusyon.At ang mga lider na ilalagay nila e taga-roon at me sapat na malasakit at kaalaman sa mga taga-roon at mga lupain na rin at kung ano pa na pwede nilang magamit sa pag-unlad.At dito siguro papasok ang tunay na suporta ng pamahalaan.Nagaganap na marahil ito,at ang kailangan na nga lang e malakas ang pamunuang ilalagay nila at alam na ang kung paanong lalaro o kikilos sa umi-iral na sistema,ngunit me mithiing tunay na mapa-unlad pa ang mga ito.Matagal pero,maaring me pag-asa.At kung malakas na sila e makakaya nilang umiwas sa mga hindi ayos na kalakaran.

we mourn the passing away of Cory because she represents the good that we will never see at present time. It rekindled the flame of that good in that hearts of many and serves a stern warning that we are ready to do out own “Cory” when the need arises.

Regarding the bs justifications being done by the paid barking dogs in malacanang in defense of their master (the illegitimate tenant at the palace of the people) relative to its wrongdoings, we the filipino people who are the sovereign source of all power and authority cannot expect good favor from these dogs. They are being paid by the illegitimate paymaster from the people’s money and all other perks they are enjoying from this illegitimate administration hence, they love licking its shit-laden asshole. That’s what dogs are good at after all, licking their masters asses. Surely they will lie to death for their master just to keep their juicy govt positions to themselves, else, they be awarded to other more faithful dogs waiting for their turn. And after all, they are serving the MASTER LIAR hence everyone of them should be a liar since this is a MAJOR requirement to belong to its administration and savor the fruits of the position entrusted to them. Sorry for us Filipino nation because those people who swear to serve for the good of our country has sold their souls to the diabolical one (now occupying the palace) because of vested self interest. For now, the nation can only hope and pray that the princes of light would one day (MIRACLE) annihilate the forces of darkness in our beloved country that for so long have cause the MISERY and MISFORTUNES of majority of our people. As long as the major branches of the govt and its officials serves the illegitimate and diabolical paymaster and not the Filipino people, we as a nation can only do so much in order to effect genuine change in our country for the benefit of the majority. But even then, lets not loose hope for a brighter future and a miracle for our beloved country THE PHILIPPINES, ang LUPANG HINIRANG, the only one we`ve got. Para sa`yo Bayang kong Pilipinas na pinakamamahal……..MosesL.