Stop Land Grabbing!
Save Agrarian Reform!
Save Agrarian Reform Alliance Year-end Report
Secretariat, Focus on the Global South
December 5, 2014
Flow
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Overall Context
Activities
Outputs/Outcomes
Gaps/Challenges
What’s for 2015?
OVERVIEW
Inclusive Growth?
 No significant improvement in
poverty incidence : 25.2
percent in 2012 (2012 FIES)
 Magnitude of poor Filipinos
23.7 million in 2012, still rural
in character
 One of the highest
inequities/gini coefficients in
Southeast Asia; higher than
Thailand’s.
 Jobless growth: declined in the
period 2011-2013, a supposed
period of increasing growth
rates in the country (DOLE)
• In retreat/declining productivity for the last 3
decades due to systematic gov’t neglect (2.9%
growth from 2000-2010)
• While still the second largest absorber of
country’s labor, rural poverty remains high
• Outmigration, increasing joblessness, aging labor,
changing countryside
• Agrarian reform, an ‘orphan’ program
• Lack of public investments
Agri/Agrarian Athrophy
• Rural poverty reduction from
2009 to 2012 (among highly rural
provinces + provinces with a high
AR backlog) was slower than
national poverty reduction on the
whole
• Number of rural poor greatly
increased in the period 2009 to
2012
Rural Poverty Worsening
A Dying/Dead? Program
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Snail-paced implementation of CARP/ER
Legalistic secretary
President’s pronouncement but still sticks with Secretary Gil
Land grabbing, land use conversions
Landlord impunity and human rights violations
Fragmented coalition for CARP/ER (civil society/social movement
and even in government)
2015-2016: election year, as in the past, reforms and
implementation of CARP/ER will be difficult/uphill battle
June 30, 2014 and beyond: landlord counter-reform offensive
ASEAN integration and impacts to agri/AR?
Mga lupang napamahagi na- reconsolidation of reformed lands in
Central Luzon ; conveyor– mechanization (farm workers lost
labor/halimaw- class issue)
Land Exemptions
2014 Objective
• Push the government to fulfil its
Constitutional obligations and promise to
effectively implement agrarian reform in the
country, and defend, respect and protect the
human right to land and productive resources
of farmers, rural women, indigenous peoples
and the rural poor.
Specific Objectives
• Inform the public/raise public awareness on
agrarian reform, including various land/water
grabbing situations and its effect on rural
communities and the various human rights
violations by the state and non-state actors;
• Popularize the demand for more effective
agrarian reform implementation across the
country in the context of uncertainty of funding
for and the future of CARPER by 2014.
• Through dialogues, push the government to act
on specific demands to resolve the specific issues
of affected communities.
Campaign Main Features
• Sustained build up activities and media and propaganda
offensives
• Executive and Legislative engagements, including with the
Congressional Oversight Committee on Agrarian Reform and the
Commission on Human Rights
• Local and sustained mobilizations
• Two waves of mass mobilizations in Manila (March and June
2014)
• Information and education campaign: university fora, social
media work, etc.
• Alliance- building: with like minded groups, universities/student
youth groups, Church, urban-based organizations
Activities
• Mobilizations (7):
– Lakbayan: First Wave/Quarter
of 2014: week-long
mobilizations during the first
week of March in Malacanang
at DAR
– Congress/House actions
– Kalbaryo ng Magsasaka
– June CARP Anniversary
– Support to Porac land grab
mob-Ayala and DAR
– Support to PKKK’s petition for
CARP Coverage action
Activities (2)
• Support for local land grabbing and land
reform cases through media/advocacy work
– Case of illegal land use conversion in Bulacan
– Sumalo, Bataan
– Porac, Pampanga
– Sicogon, Iloilo
– Hacienda Luisita
Activities (3)
• Media events and press releases
– Primer (English and Filipino) on agrarian reform/CARP
impelementation
– Three infographic posters documenting the land grabbing and
resistance in Boracay, Sumalo, and a general poster on the need
to campaign for farmers’ right to land
– Sixteen (16) press releases highlighting government’s inaction
and lack of political will to implement CARP/ER, demand for
access to information, emphasizing agrarian reform as a key
national and social reform agenda, plight of farmers, land
grabbing and land use conversions by real estate developers and
corporations, landlords and increasing trend of human rights
violations and attack on peasants and human rights defenders.
– 29 interviews in TV and radio; for print and online: 51 media
mentions
– SARA vs. KMP as two main poles
Activities (4)
• Peoples’ Agrarian Reform
Congress on June 6
• Outreach to student groups:
more than 3,000 students were
reached by the room-to-room
campaigns, 2 big fora, online
and social media campaign. UP
USC adopted agrarian
reform/support for CARP/ER as
an agenda
– AFARM
– Buklod Atenista
– UP USC
Activities (5)
• Alliance building
– SENTRO/APL
– CBCP-NASSA
– Students
– World March of Women/CATW-AP
– Human rights groups: PAHRA, PCICC
– Farmers’ groups- NAPC FLWRS, TFM, AR Now!
Activities (6)
• Legislative/Executive Dialogues
– COCAR hearing: La Breeza Hotel
– Committee on AR-House of Rep hearings
– Executive?
Outcomes
• SARA’s role as radical pole supportive of CARP/ER
• Closer working relationship with youth groups:
formation of AFARM; USC adopted AR/ CARPER
for the first time
• Sustained media offensive (at least until August)
• Recognized peasant-led coalition critical of
government; first to call for the resignation of Gil
• Positions asked by COCAR and House of Rep
Gaps/Challenges
• Separate funds– so far, much of
funding/resources come from Focus’ pot. Do we
fundraise separately?
• Gap in the media work- especially for the 3rd-4th
quarter of the year
• Sec. Gil still hasn’t resigned; still slow
implementation
• Focus as secretariat- to continue or not to
continue?
• Allies- have we reached those what we want to
reach?
What for 2015-2016?
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Objectives?
Targets and Priorities
Tactics and Strategies
Limits and Opportunities
Commitments and Expectations
New Projects:
– Civil Society Audit of CARP/ER
– ED Sessions and Youth Congress with youth/student
movements
Campaign of Save Agrarian
Reform Alliance
- pressure tactics
- information & education
- mainstream & social media (esp. on
cases)
- Agrarian Reform Congress on June
6
- critical engagements with COCAR,
CHR, executive
- Networking- students, Catholic
Church, other basic sectors (labor,
women, urban poor)
- support individual cases
Comments
• Ric: Ateneo and UP- nakuha/nabuksan na larangan
• Gap: engagement with the Senate; Koko Pimental as
champion
• HB 4296: opposition
– CON: Tottie: FEFreedom; tanggalin ang CLOA, farmland as
collateral/UP School of Econ (Fabella, Clarete, Chiciamco,
Paderanga- theoretical underpinning, Fermin Adriano) vs.
– PRO: Christian Monsod, Solita Monsod, Rene Ofreneo
– Mano-mano ang congressmen- isolate the Negros bloc
– Boyet Gonzales- archiving
• CARP Audit
Bataan
• Ka Bobby: case of CLOA generated in 2002– 100
hectares – but cancelled (dummy persons), then,
petitioned for cancellation
– 2006: case started
– 2008: decision for CLOA cancellation
– Transfer to Korean nationals ang CLOA (without
charter change); was covered again by DAR
– Organized Syndicate of DAR Employee, RD,
personalities
– Gen. Dumpit- tao ni McCoy/ Marcos
– Case of reclassification for exclusion from CARP
– Irrigated lands- Abucay, Bataan
Bataan
• Ka Larry: petition for the CARP coverage– were already
covered and land titles generated/CLOA- 1,000
hectares in Hermosa and Bagac- 1,000
– Morong– not yet covered
– Femy Rivera- 300 hectares
– Security guards– private security guards
• Ka Elvie: all the petitions for CARP coverage involving
12 municipalities– remove the PARO San Luis;
provincial consultation in December 13 organized by
PKKK- per landholding- what’s the reality (rice lands);
December 8: Nueva Ecija
– Camp in January in front of DAR
Bataan
• Ka Jimmy: Modus operandi: syndicato in Bataan (1997); mastermind in
DAR Central Luzon- teofilo inocencio; may abogado- Atty. Anselmo Carlos
(humahanap ng buyer at bumibili at nagbebenta): 115- Laperal; 90
hectares: Bataan shores; Arnel Mallari
– Land speculation
– Generated CLOA but not registered at the Registry of Deeds; only survey and
then they sell of the lands to the developers and other land speculators
– Audit- anomalous
– Dummy ARBs- etsapwera ang actual ARBs
– Isinama sa accomplishment– survey pero binebenta lang nila
• ARB carding– they did for the whole country; beneficiaries are not actually
on the ground; dummies
• Need legal– for ombudsman
– Atty. Flores; MARO Salvador (Balanga)– documents are difficult to get from the
government– tinatago ng MARO
Bataan: moving forward
• Ka Elvie: anong pwedeng gawin?” Legal- failure of AR
implementation in once province as trigger for CARP
audit
– Omi: magfile ng Task Force Bataan sa DAR- use the data of
Ka Jimmy, Ka Bobby and Ka Larry to deepen the
investigation; on the spot, hold Inocencio accountable
– As SARA, formulate a letter as earliest possible time
because of widespread corruption- draft c/o Ka Elvie
• Lahat signatories
• PCIJ – to conduct investigation
– Checkmate: Delos Reyes
• Consequence: baka di mapaipasa ang batas
• Ric: impacts– anti-corruption; anong gagawin
ni P-Noy rito? Restitution; iwasto (slogan:
laban ng SARA rito)
– Lawyer needed for audit
– Restitution
– AR Commission- pansalo
Calibration
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Petition-letter c/o Ka Elvie
Media- press release
PCIJ
Ombudsman
– Legal luminary/assistance: Marlon Manuel
– UP Law Center- Dannie Con.
– Dean Raul Pangalanan- c/o Ric