n
n
n
n
coverage, and with no DAR lawyers to represent them. This impedes the
LAD process for private agricultural lands.
DAR’s lack of capability and resources to conduct simultaneous surveys
and field investigations, partly due to the lack of in-house survey teams.
Continuing landowner resistance even after the issuance of EP/CLOAs to
the ARBs. In Eastern and Western Visayas, many former landowners are
still in possession and control of lands already awarded to farmers. DAR’s
lack of interest to run after violators encourages more circumvention and
resistance to the program.
Frequent changes in DAR leadership (three Secretaries in 2016-2018),
along with conflicting issuances and changing priorities under each new
administration.
Administrative Order 7, Series of 2011 slowed down LAD implementation
on landholdings with pending cases as it constrained DAR from
completing the LAD process if a case questioning CARP coverage of a
landholding is not yet denied by the Office of the President. This issuance
was amended twice, and finally revoked – under three successive DAR
Secretaries.
Status of the leasehold program. RA 3844 enacted in 1963 was the first nonredistributive agrarian reform program which sought to protect the rights of
tenant farmers. It ensures tenant rights to a homelot, and outlaws share tenancy
in favor of leasehold arrangements. According to DAR, the leasehold program
benefits over 1.2M tenants in 1.8M hectares of agricultural land. The 2016 and
2017 DAR accomplishment reports also indicate that DAR exceeded its leasehold
targets. However, there are indications that the leasehold program has been
generally neglected by the DAR over the past few decades:
DAR has no comprehensive database of all the target landholdings for
leasehold operations from which to compare and validate the
accomplishments. The data available only show cumulative
accomplishments since 1987 (including contracts that have been
renewed), rather than the total number of beneficiaries and total area of
farms currently under leasehold.
n Under the existing policies, leaseholders are considered agrarian reform
beneficiaries with equal benefits to those ARBs awarded with land, yet no
data are available on the support services given by the government to
leaseholders.
n
Asian NGO Coalition for Agrarian Reform and Rural Development (ANGOC)
43
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