A 2006 Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) study, all of 270 pages, funded by the German Technical Cooperation (GTZ in German) entitled “The Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program: Scenarios and Options of Future Development” conclude the following: 1) Philippine agriculture is in a “state of distress”; 2) Despite 18 years of CARP and 14 years of ‘Operation Land Transfer’ (PD 27), agrarian reform has failed to produce a significant dent on the country’s rural poverty levels; 3) Despite having spent over P200 billion for CARP, the financing is still inadequate; 4) Implementation has been beset by misplaced priorities and misallocation of scarce resources; 5) The collection record of CAP amortization payments has been a dismal 18%; 6) Globalization has had a negative effect on agriculture:
Worldwide economic trends, like trade liberalization, increasing prices of fertilizers and crude oil, have seriously hurt Philippine agriculture; 7) The agriculture trade balance has been a clear deteriorating trend since the enactment of CARP with the Philippines changing from a net agricultural exporter to a net agricultural importer by the mid-1990s.
Attorneys Eduardo Hernandez, Gil Marie Alba, Adriano Hernandez in their book, ‘Landowner’s Rights’, states, “DAR’s campaign to extend CARP, blaming ‘extraneous variables’ other than CARP”, is an attempt at justification. They continue, “…this finger pointing is suspicious and dangerous because an honest evaluation of CARP should evaluate first, whether there is anything wrong with it, rather than pointing the blame elsewhere”. Further to above observation they made is, “Indeed it seems strange that foreigners should take special interest in helping our agrarian reform program….and we were known to be a major agricultural power in the world economy before agrarian reform”. We can only conclude, the objective is a “comprehensive agrarian economy” out of touch and outpaced by a world order heavily industrialized. Maoist-left in DAR igniting rural restiveness vs. landowners copying China’s Mao, with the end-objective of “State control of all lands”. (Erik Espina)