Central Luzon farmers are up in arms over what they consider to be a phony distribution of Certificates of Condonation and Release of Mortgage (COCROMs) to farmers as if it were equivalent to genuine distribution of land. It isn’t and the Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP) and the Alyansa ng Magbubukid sa Gitnang Luzon have exposed it as a smokescreen for the massive land use conversions, forced land acquisitions and displacement of farmers.
Doling out COCROMs under the bogus Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) and the New Agrarian Emancipation Act (NAEA) crafted under Marcos Jr. is touted by the Palace as a huge achievement, but grizzled veterans of farmer struggles described the process as symbolic, with the paper certificates being meaningless in the face of rapacious corporations seizing and converting prime agricultural land into industrial and commercial estates.
Under the NAEA implemented in 2023, the Marcos Jr. administration has distributed thousands of COCROMs across Central Luzon, condoning billions of pesos in land-related amortization debts. In Hacienda Luisita alone, 4,663 COCROMs were reportedly distributed to 3,527 agrarian reform beneficiaries (ARBs) and wiping out over P124.64 million in debt. COCROMs were also distributed in Pampanga, Bulacan, and Nueva Ecija. For KMP national chairperson Danilo Ramos, it is an injustice for the government to collect amortizations from farmers under CARP, which was merely a continuation of the policy under the martial law Presidential Decree No. 27 (PD 27.) Also running as a Makabayan senatorial candidate, Ramos stressed that NAEA is a world-class deception.
The Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) claims to have distributed over 195,000 COCROMS and targets to complete the issuance of 300,000 COCROMs by the end of 2025. It added that the department intends to complete land distribution by 2028. Yet, it duped Batangas farmers by revoking their land awards covering sugar haciendas, with the landlords retaining control of their estates, with the infertile, remote land to be chopped up among landless farmers. Marcos Jr. himself described the NAEA and CARP as “labor of love,” and describing it as a continuation of his father’s land reform legacy. “Walang tunay na reporma sa lupa sa ilalim ni Marcos Jr,” KMP and AMGL asserted.
“Even as Marcos Jr. hands out mere pieces of paper, corporate giants and political elites are maneuvering to reclaim and convert prime agricultural land for profit,” Ramos argued, citing the case of Hacienda Luisita farmers, who have been betrayed several times. Now, Aboitiz Infracapital, Inc. (AIC) is planning to convert 500 hectares of Hacienda Luisita into a special economic zone under the guise of a “green energy” project. This, Ramos explained, is “a blatant land grab that disregards farmers’ legitimate claims to the land. The conversion, pushed through without consultation with ARBs, threatens to displace long-time residents and agricultural workers.” This is state-backed land grabbing that prioritizes corporate profit over the lives of peasants.
Hacienda Luisita is a living example of justice denied. The Tarlac Development Corp. (TADECO)—controlled by the Cojuangco and Lorenzo families—continues to defy the 2012 Supreme Court ruling to distribute more than 4,900 hectares of land to farmers. In Barangays Balete and Cutcut, TADECO erected guard towers, deployed armed personnel and issued eviction notices to kick out farmers. This defiance underscores the Cojuangco-Lorenzos determination to control Hacienda Luisita at any cost. Worse, Ayala Land, Inc. (ALI), has partnered with the Cojuangco and Lorenzo families to initiate demolitions in Sitio Obrero, Barangay Central. Last year, eight homes were destroyed illegally and hundreds of families were evicted to make way for the Crescendo property development project. “This violent act of dispossession, executed without due process, reflects the collusion between landlords and corporations in undermining agrarian reform and displacing the urban poor,” Ramos argued.
The harsh reality is that land “promised” to farmers under CARP is being steadily converted into industrial estates and commercial zones to benefit the same oligarchs who have long controlled the country’s land and wealth, KMP explained. In fact, the Maharlika Investment Corp. (MIC), the country’s supposed sovereign wealth fund manager, is banking on control of government-owned lands (GOLs) and their conversion into agriculture estates, to the chagrin of farmers who had been promised large swaths of GOLs. Makabayan senatorial candidate Ramos said “the fight for genuine agrarian reform is far from over. Farmers in Hacienda Luisita and across the country will continue to resist all attempts to displace them. The government’s piecemeal and bogus land distribution efforts are meaningless as long as land use conversions continue to undermine land distribution.”
The struggle in Hacienda Luisita reflects a broader fight for land justice across the Philippines, where large landholdings remain concentrated in the hands of a few powerful families. “While Marcos Jr. hands out land titles with one hand, the other hand facilitates land grabs and conversions that strip farmers of their rightful land. KMP calls for an end to land use conversions, genuine land distribution, and the dismantling of the corporate and political structures that have long exploited Filipino farmers.” On paper, more than 500,000 hectares of privately-owned lands (PALs) have yet to be subjected to CARP’s land acquisition and distribution (LAD), while the DAR excluded an additional 300,000 hectares of land covered by contentious ownership issues and factitious titles. Given Marcos Jr.’s glacial pace for LAD, it will take the republic 50 more years to distribute land to peasants and dismantle the non-performing bureaucracy named DAR. (DIEGO MORRA)
