younger farmers. RA 6657 states that a landless tiller should be at least 15 years old as of 15 June 1988 to qualify as an agrarian reform beneficiary. Cross-cutting issues Rampant illegal land use conversion. DAR data on approved land conversions show that 168,041 hectares of agricultural lands were converted and/or exempted from CARP coverage.14 However, this does not show the real picture, as there are thousands of undocumented and illegally converted irrigated and irrigable agricultural lands, and the DAR has not been prosecuting violators. Corrupt and inept DAR officials. There were instances when a group of farmers, mostly unorganized, are seeking assistance from DAR for their concerns; but instead of providing assistance, the DAR officials encouraged them to negotiate with their landowners. In some cases, DAR facilitated the lease and/or leaseback arrangements between the ARBs and investors. Overlapping land claims. Sector-specific land laws like the CARP Law (RA 6657), IPRA (RA 8371), and the UDHA (RA 7279) – implemented by different government agencies may sometimes overlap, resulting in conflicts over land rights among different sectors of the rural poor. For instance, CLOAs have been issued within ancestral domains, and urban settlements expand to areas still classified as agricultural land. In the absence of a national policy on land use, and with multiple agencies issuing land titles and assigning land rights, there is often confusion and conflict among the basic sectors. The government has tried to harmonize various land laws through dialogues and joint agency mechanisms, but has so far failed. Governance and coordination. There are several governance mechanisms that are required to have farmer representatives, i.e., the Presidential Agrarian Reform Council (PARC), the National Anti-Poverty Commission (NAPC), and the Land Bank of the Philippines (LBP). The roles of these bodies are mostly on policy formulation and recommendations. It is at the Barangay Agrarian Reform Councils (BARC) where farmers have a direct role in the agrarian reform implementation. In the past, the DAR and CSOs also formed joint coordination mechanisms – such as an open-door policy and joint task forces. But none of these mechanisms were sustained as they were co-terminus with each DAR administration. Nationwide converted and exempted/excluded landholdings from 1988 to November 2017. Data from the DAR Bureau of Agrarian Legal Assistance. 14 Asian NGO Coalition for Agrarian Reform and Rural Development (ANGOC) 57