More than 18 years ago, in June 1988 President Corazon Aquino signed the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Law and thus set the foundation intended for the implementation of the Extensive Agrarian Reform Program. The law was passed after nearly a year of heated discussion posts in Congress. It was passed after the getting rid of of 19 peasants who were members of the demonstration of 15 000 peasants asking for a meeting together with the President and under the future pressure of your coalition of 13 major farmers’ organizations who had formed a powerful umbrella group, the Congress for a People’s Agrarian Reform, consisting of one . 5 million people.
The implementation of the reform would not go smoothly and achieved, as in different countries employing an arcadian reform, strong resistance via large landowners. Some used their personal influence to stop confiscation, although some tried to prevent the change by unlawful land moves, land make use of conversion and also other illegal means. Furthermore, the landlord dominated Our elected representatives delayed continuously the allocation of funds for the implementation in the program.
Yet, despite various obstacles the Department of Agrarian Change (DAR) as well as its cooperating companies have accomplished many of their objectives. Some 2 mil landless maqui berry farmers have received a plot of land that belongs to them and about you million renters were given protected tenancy conditions. The change has superior the wellness of the non-urban society and contributed to socio-economic stability in the countryside. Using a coverage of about 40 percent of the rural population and 75 percent of all cultivable land the reform can be considered as one of the many successful in recent years.
While some large latifundia continue to be to be protected, the time has come to reflect about the future position of the Section and its staff once the property acquisition and distribution component of the reform has been completed, my spouse and i. e. inside the post terrain acquisition and distribution (post LAD) period. As the knowledge in the Israel and in various other countries shows the simply allocation of land to reform beneficiaries is not sufficient. In order to be successful they need to be provided with helping services.
In the past they were, to a large extent, supplied by the Section of Provincial Reform. However , if a primary part of its activities concludes, the question comes up whether there is certainly still dependence on DAR and if so , that tasks, or perhaps whether other actors will be better fitted to carry out the rest of the activities. Through this state of affairs the Department started to be aware of the advantages of a study which will would review various institutional options pertaining to supporting change beneficiaries plus the rural community as a whole.
The Department approached the The german language Technical Assistance (GTZ) to help in the preparing of such a study. GTZ provides, for more than 30 years, cooperated with the Government from the Philippines in implementing the development applications. It has offered special emphasis to economical reforms and poverty reduction. In identification of the significance of maintaining the gains of the change for the alleviation of rural poverty GTZ replied favourably towards the request. In consultation with the Director with the Policy and Strategic Research Service, Mrs.
Martha Carmel Salcedo, GTZ commissioned five agrarian change specialists and a project director to conduct the study. A steering committee composed of CEDER and GTZ was accountable for the coordination of the analyze. The consultants prepared a great analysis of the various pieces of the program to make proposals pertaining to agricultural and rural creation in a period after area acquisition and distribution. To be able to validate their particular preliminary studies and findings GTZ prepared regional consultation services in Davao, Cebu, Zamboanga, Baguio and San Fernando and a national workshop in Local area Manila.
The meetings provided an open community forum for conversations among staff of government and civil world about the ongoing future of CARP, ENTREGAR and its cooperating agencies. The views expressed in these meetings were regarded as by the consultants and as much as feasible incorporated in the examine. Director Salcedo and her staff followed the various levels of survey preparation and offered useful comments on earlier drafts, without, nevertheless , interfering inside the conceptual work of the consultants.
In order to provide necessary background information which is needed for the understanding and justification of the various options recommended, the book traces in its first part the events that characterized the implementation with the program and describes in a number of sub-chapters its main parts. It appraises program accomplishments and influence. It analyses shortcomings and constraints in the implementation. Every single sub-chapter pinpoints lessons learned and recognizes components which usually require additional interventions.
In the second portion of the book the consultants offer several alternatives for institutional change for the future development of the agricultural community and offer special emphasis to the role of the Division of Provincial Reform as well as its specialized devices. On the basis of all their analysis in the first portion of the study they will propose numerous recommendations that this government may well consider in so that it will safeguard the achievements in the reform.
Through this context it really is proposed that full employ should be created from the experience of the able and motivated personnel of DAR, both in the field and in headquarters. On the other hand it is important to comprehend that agrarian reform and rural development cannot be achieved by government affluence alone. Even though the government can offer the general legal framework, environmentally friendly rural development requires the active participation of local level self-help groups, independent peasant organizations and NGOs.
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