Keep your Promise PNOY: DAR must stick to the deadline for Hacienda Luisita Distribution

I write this blog entry just two days before the date set for the completion of the distribution of Hacienda Luisita to the farmer-beneficiaries. As of this writing, the pace of the distribution still seems very sluggish. Even today—at the eleventh hour—the government still seems determined not to meet its deadline.

It seems that every excuse has been offered: From fortuitous events such as Typhoon Santi which hit last year and to it not being the “end of the world”,^* should the deadline not be met, though we should already take this as an admission that the DAR is simply not up to the task of distributing the land.

Why is this date so important? Thats because that is the date when R.A. No. 9700, the CARPER law is set to “expire”. And by expire, I mean that all funding will cease since by then all the land was supposed to have been distributed.^** When this funding ceases, practically all the work left to do comes to a complete standstill. Its a situation of “finished-or-not-finished” all work will cease, or rather a case of statutorily granted funds being replaced with discretionary funds.  A possible remedy of course would be to pass a new law extending CARPER, but its highly unlikely given the current PDAF imbroglio in the senate which has effectively reduced the quorum in the Senate and kept whoever is left on their toes.

This date is also significant because it marks the President's commitment to land reform—it was one of Noynoy Aquino's campaign promises in the 2010 elections. A failure here would be a very personal one for Aquino.

Hacienda Luisita was a large landholding that once belonged to the Aquino Family—the family where the Philippines' current President belongs to. It is a land over which much blood has been spilled. In fact, a massacre and some related killings happened there in 2005. This was around the time that the Aquino-Cojuangcos were trying to implement a stock distribution option (SDO) with the farmers instead of physically handing over the land to them.

It was R.A. No. 9700, which was passed in 2009 which practically abolished the giving of stocks instead of land to the farmers. And HLI vs. Luisita Industrial Park Corporation which revoked the original Stock Distribution Plan. A highly credible conspiracy theory exists whereby it is claimed that President Aquino and the Aquino-Cojuangco clan are waging a secret vendetta against the Former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, under whose administration R.A. No. 9700 was signed; and against Former Chief Justice Corona, under whose court HLI vs. Luisita was promulgated, which led to the Former Chief Justice's impeachment and the Former President's arrest.

It is with this political backdrop that we hope and wait that the President, through his Agency the Department of Agrarian Reform finally finish distributing the land to the farmer-beneficiaries in time for the June 30, 2014 deadline set under the CARPER law.

Update 7/21/14

The latest controversy regarding the DAP may involve this now-defunct CARPER Law.  According to an anonymous letter to the editor published by the Manila Times last July 19, 2014:

DAP and DAR

DAR made full page announcements in the leading dailies that notwithstanding the expiry of our Agrarian laws as of June 30, 2014. DAR still did not end because under Sec. 30.^*** “pending cases or proceedings” may still be continued. And so DAR made midnight notices of coverage by publication (not by personal service nor by registered mail as required) so as to cover more lands.

DAR says that it has enough savings and can therefore go on and acquire new lands. They better read the latest Supreme Court decision declaring the acts of Budget Secretary Abad and President Aquino as “unconstitutional” This is because they used or transferred “savings” to finance projects without the proper appropriation law. The court effectively went back to the old doctrine when a budget has not been used up for a certain purpose, the saving goes back to the government to be appropriated properly and not by the Executive branch which implemented projects. Without a new law how can there be an appropriation of savings? Cross-Border to the DAR? Equally illegal.

What this letter confirms is my fears that if the deadline wasn't met for the Hacienda Luisita distribution, it will most likely never be accomplished given the expiry of CARPER and that funds shall cease to be allocated to it from now on.

References:

Here is a piece in 2009 when CARPER still held much hope and promise:
http://opinion.inquirer.net/viewpoints/columns/view/20090622-211874/CARPER-Latest-Chapter-in-Agri-Reform-Battle

The farmers are obviously displeased:
http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/615626/farmers-mark-end-of-carper-with-protests

Kris Aquino on fire and the target of hate:
http://www.gmanetwork.com/news/story/358403/news/nation/you-can-burn-me-anytime-you-want-kris-to-hacienda-luisita-farmers

*Hardly an excuse in any case.

*^* Section 21. Section 63 of Republic Act No. 6657, as amended, is hereby further amended to read as follows:

“SEC. 63. Funding Source. - The amount needed to further implement the CARP as provided in this Act, until June 30, 2014, upon expiration of funding under Republic Act No. 8532 and other pertinent laws, shall be funded from the Agrarian Reform Fund and other funding sources in the amount of at least One hundred fifty billion pesos (P150,000,000,000.00).

“Additional amounts are hereby authorized to be appropriated as and when needed to augment the Agrarian Reform Fund in order to fully implement the provisions of this Act during the five (5)-year extension period.

x x x x”

***SECTION 30. Resolution of Cases. — Any case and/or proceeding involving the implementation of the provisions of Republic Act No. 6657, as amended, which may remain pending on June 30, 2014 shall be allowed to proceed to its finality and be executed even beyond such date.