Faulty land reform program aggravates urban poverty—urban poor group (On the second year anniversary of CARPer)

NEWS RELEASE l August 7

CEBU, Philippines—A militant national center of urban poor has pointed out the government’s faulty agrarian reform program as the main driver of urban migration that leads to more populated cities and tighter employment competition for almost 30 million urban poor in the country, thus aggravating urban poverty.

This according to the statement released by Kalipunan ng Damayang Mahihirap (Kadamay) on the second year anniversary of the creation of Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program Extension with Reform (CARPer) today.

“The past and present administrations have failed in years in ensuring the crucial task of distributing lands to millions of landless rural poor, as well as acting on the issue of rampant land-grabbing by big landlords,” Carlito Badion said, the group’s national vice chairperson.

“CARPer in its two years of existence has never answered the lack of land to till in the countryside by millions of peasants, that is pushing them towards cities and urban center in search for alternative livelihod source, and reliable jobs,” Badion added.

“In fact, 60% of all agricultural lands or almost 9 million hectares are privately owned by just 13% of landlords in the Philippines. More than 20% of agricultural lands or 3 million hectares are owned by just 9,500 individuals,” Badion cited to show the gravity of landlessness that force rural poor to migrate to cities.

Urban migration has reached its peak in recent years. Cebu City for instance has experienced drastic urban migration in recent years. It is now is the 5th largest city of the Philippines with a population of almost 800 thousand. It is the most populous city in the Visayas and the center of Metro Cebu which has a population of approximately 2,314,897.

The presence of big landlords like the families of Almagro, Garcia and Durano from Cebu, Danding Cojuangco, Jr, and the Romualdez clan who monopolize land ownership in the Visayan provinces, has to be blamed, according to Kadamay.

Unless land monopoly and feudalism end now, according to the group, millions of poor peasants will continue to flock the cities, and contribute to the growing number of urban poor population.

From data used by the United Nations, from 2005 to 2015, the estimated average growth of capital cities in the Philippines or urban agglomerations is 28%. By 2030, the urban population is estimated to reach 85 million or approximately 70% of the total population.

CARPer as landlord’s milking cow
CARPer is nothing but an instrument of landlords to legalize landgrabbing and land use conversion, and to justify the brutal displacement of farmers, according to Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas, a national peasant group.

Based on KMP’s reckoning, during the first year of CARPer’s implementation, only 64,329 out of the 163,014 hectares targeted for land distribution were processed and the bulk 41,000 hectares were placed under the Voluntary Offer to Sell (VOS) category. A negligible 1,777 hectares were put under Compulsory Acquisition (CA). The peasant group said landlords were hell bent on exploiting the provisions of the law that authorizes them to dictate the value of their lands. CARPer, the group said, was landlords’ milking cow.

Alternatives to CARPer
“CARPer, as the government’s land reform program, will never contribute to the its effort in addressing the widespread poverty, and therefore should be scrapped,” Badion said.

“Unless the Genuine Agrarian Reform Bill (GARB), the militants’ alternative to CARPer is passed, the agrarian revolution in the countryside that is very popular among the rural poor and facilitated by communist rebels through armed struggle will remain justified,” he ended.

Reference: Carlito Badion, National Vice Chair l 09393873736