In defense of land rights: A monitoring report on land conflicts in six Asian countries 116 In many cases, stakeholders eventually realize the need to assert their claim over their land and resource rights through peaceful means. This is often conducted with the aid of support groups such as CSOs and social movements, and sometimes, with the aid of the government. Peaceful claim-making builds the confidence of rural poor communities and allows them to build alliances and consolidate their resources towards asserting their land and resource rights. Initiatives such as dialogues and mediation fall under this type of response. This response is the only approach capable of achieving settlement of the issues that caused and sustained the conflict. Arriving at settlement is protracted (if successful at all) because conflict resolution processes are encumbered by legal and policy issues that are impervious to change. Conflict management mechanisms In the bigger picture, the Philippines is internationally recognized for progressive legislations such as the CARL and the IPRA, which were won by the concerted efforts of community leaders, CSOs and their allies in Congress. These laws though, are implemented at a sluggish pace, with the CARL reaching its 30th year of implementation and the IPRA its 21st. The DAR and the NCIP, respective agencies imbued with the mandate to implement land and resource reform have been unable to exercise the full power provided them under law. As such, the socio-economic and political structures these progressive laws aim to change generally remain unchallenged. Government remains dominated by the landed elite and corporate interests, while the basic sectors and their allies through time have begun to be fragmented by ideological and political differences. As a result, gains achieved in the past have become vulnerable to reversal. Amidst the slow implementation of land and resource reform programs, the government has been pursuing initiatives to streamline land investments in energy, agribusiness, and infrastructure. Currently, investments in forestry and to a certain extent, mining are strictly monitored by the government. Table 3: Streamlining initiatives for land investments Agency ANGOC Department of Energy (DOE) Business Mining and Infrastructure Threat Given the shortage and expensive cost of energy in the Philippines, the DOE has released EO 30 that expedites extraction of energy resources and the construction of infrastructures for energy production and distribution (DOE, 2018). In fact, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) has released a report that for 2017, there is a 1,000 percent increase in foreign direct investments on energy from 2016.