8/10/2019 Econ 1 Agrarian

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On August 7, 2009, former President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo signed into law Republic Act No. 9700, commonly called the Carper

Law or the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program Extension with Reforms. Carper Law extended for five years, or until August

2014, the land acquisition and distribution under RA 6657, otherwise known as the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Law of 1988

that was passed on to the term of former President Corazon Aquino.

Maraon pointed out that even after almost 25 years of program implementation, the government failed to issue individual titles to

the beneficiaries and that no actual survey of the lands covered by Carp was done.

The parcelization of productive agricultural lands into small unviable plots has also been blamed for decreased agricultural

productivity.

Sugar Regulatory Administrator (SRA) Ma. Regina B. Martin said Thursday during a forum with sugar producers that the

fragmentation of land into small farms denies the farmers the benefits of the economies of scale.

Thus, SRA and the Department of Agrarian Reform came up with the Sugarcane Convergence Program or block farming, which

was already launched in Batangas last January. It will be implemented all over the country, including Negros Occidental, within the

year.

Block farming is the consolidation of small parcels of land cultivated by agrarian reform beneficiaries and other marginal farmers into

more viable plantation size farms, according to SRAs Planning and Policy Department manager Rosemarie Gumera.

A study commissioned sometime in 2006 or 2007 by the Provincial Government revealed that Carp has not alleviated the quality of

life of ARBs and that the program has resulted to decreased agricultural productivity. The principal reason cited by ARBs was the

lack of technical and financial support from the government that compelled them to either abandon their land or lease it back to the

original landowner or to third parties.

Another detrimental aspect of the program, according to the study, was its adverse effect on the local government units education

program. Since a large majority of the ARBs do not pay their land amortization, much less their real property taxes to the local

government units, the Provincial Government has racked up billions in unpaid real property taxes from thousands of delinquent

ARBs. Local government units source the budget for the local school boards from the real property taxes. Due to the decrease in tax

collection, the local school boards budget, which is used for school repairs and maintenance and payment of volunteer teachers,

among others, was also drastically reduced.