The last time the government acted swiftly on agrarian matters was during the incumbency of the late President Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III, who belonged to the landed gentry but did not choke the funds pipeline for the acquisition of farmland or stop the compensation of landowners.
When Rodrigo Duterte took over Malacanang in 2016, many thought his campaign spiel “change is coming” was genuine. Many peasants thought that change was afoot, and better days would come as the purported “socialist” president was bent on erasing inequality by slaying the scourge of landlessness, increasing wages, and banning the exploitation of farmers.
However, the Duterte regime scuttled the scheme whereby Land Bank would advance the money for land acquisition and distribution (LAD) and landowner compensation and then get reimbursed through the national budget and the Agrarian Reform Fund (ARF.) The scheme worked wonders for the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) and Land Bank, which practically managed the fund on behalf of the Presidential Agrarian Reform Council (PARC), the ultimate arbiter of agrarian issues and the implementor of the social justice program since 1987, the farmer federation Task Force Mapalad (TFM) said.
After the Noynoy Aquino administration, both the DAR and Land Bank could no longer get the cash for LAD and landowner compensation, preventing them from acquiring land beyond the 5-hectare retention limit and distributing the same to landless peasants under the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP.) They have become hostage to the strictures of the budget making process, an annual “via dolorosa” for many departments, including the DAR, which is supposed to wither away upon the completion of CARP.
TFM notes that the impact of delayed landowner compensation has been deeply felt in Negros Occidental, where 297 landholdings covering 6,287.64 hectares have not been fully paid. Until these lands are firmly out of the control of landlords, 4,499 agrarian reform beneficiaries (ARBs) would still be landless farmers. There is no way the Marcos Jr. administration could overcome the inertia that has gripped both the DAR and Land Bank since 2022. Considering that the valuation of agricultural land is low at P100,000 per hectare, the initial cash payment (ICP) of 30% per hectare should have prompted the DAR and Land Bank to engage in a buying spree. Yet, they did not even at a time when the ARF had P34-billion to spend.
In 2022, the national budget set aside only P5,427,000 for landowner compensation while there was none from the ARF. The amount was good only for the acquisition of 54 hectares. The following year, the allocation from ARF zoomed to P-billion, with the national budget setting aside P6,784,000 for landowner compensation. The ARF allocation was good enough for 1,000 hectares while the money from the budget could only pay for 68 hectares. For this year, the ARF set aside P57,641,000 and the national budget allocated P6,784,000, with the entire sum covering the purchase of 644 hectares.
From 2022 to 2024, the total allocation for landowner compensation was P1,076,641,000, with P1,057,641,000 coming from the ARF and only P18,995,000 from the national budget. All told, the total amount could only cover 10,768 hectares for three years. The proposed allocation for 2025 is only P206,784,000, with P200 million coming from ARF and the budget earmarking a measly P6,784,000. The total could suffice to cover only 2,068 hectares.
“Given the allocated budget for landowner’s compensation from 2022-2024 of P1,076,641,000, only a total of 10,766 hectares can be acquired by the government for distribution in three years. An average of only 3,589 hectares can be purchased a year, which makes fulfilling the promise of finishing LAD with a total balance of 507,575 hectares within his administration impossible,” TFM argued. The facts clearly indicate that far from achieving its target of putting an end to landlessness, the current administration is abiding by the pace notoriously set by the Duterte regime. Change came with Duterte; scamming farmers continued under the Marcos Jr. government.
