Former leftist allies Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas and Makabayan bloc chairman Rafael Mariano (L) and Akbayan party-list Rep. Walden Bello (R) and Negros peasant leader Dorita Vargas (C), who was among women farmers who had their heads shaved on Monday, March 9, 2015 to protest the blocking of CARP extension allegedly by landlord-politicians in Congress. Photo of Vargas by Jimmy Domingo. Photos of Mariano and Bello from congress.gov.ph
They both come from the left of the political spectrum and are both denouncing the greed of landlords. However, they differ in their strategies on pushing for agrarian reform and often find themselves on the opposite sides of the political fence.
This difference -- that goes back to the so-called "Great Left Divide" in the early 1990s that saw the revolutionary movement splintering into warring factions called the RAs (re-affirmists) of Jose Maria Sison and RJs (rejectionists) led by Popoy Lagman that later on further split into many groups of mainstream and moderate left-- is once again highlighted following the recent call of Catholic prelates led by 74 bishops to overhaul and extend the implementation of the 27-year-old Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP).
On Monday, the militant peasant group Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP), identified with the mainstream left, urged Congress to send to the "legislative archive" House Bill 4296 that seeks to extend the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR)'s authority to issue notices of coverage to agricultural landholdings that should be distributed to farmers but have not yet been placed under the CARP.
CARP failed to break up land monopoly
According to KMP chairman Rafael Mariano, who also heads the Makabayan coalition, extending the "bogus" CARP through HB 4296's enactment, will mean the continuation of CARP evasion, exemption, and conversion of big farms by "big landlords, including landlords in Congress who continuously own and control vast haciendas."
Mariano said that the CARP that started in 1988 during the term of President Corazon Aquino failed to break up land monopoly that up to now, 27 years since its implementation, vast landholdings including Hacienda Luisita in Tarlac that should have long been distributed to farmers remain under the control of influential families such as the Aranetas, and Cojuangcos.
Ironically, HB 4296 is one of the two bills that landless tillers mostly from Negros Occidental want passed by the House of Representatives on third and final reading. On Monday, 16 peasant women mostly from the province had their heads shaved to protest the non-passage of the bill allegedly due to House Majority Leader Neptali Gonzales II's reluctance, whom farmers accuse of siding with landlord-politicians in Congress.
The bill, which was certified in June 2014 by President Benigno Aquino III as a priority measure, is being supported by Akbayan party-list led by Rep. Walden Bello, another left-leaning group, whose leaders bolted from the mainstream left during the Great Left Divide.
CARP isn't perfect, but we gained a lot from the program
Farmer-leader Alberto Jayme, Negros chapter president of national peasant federation Task Force Mapalad, which is being supported by Akbayan, said that while CARP had its imperfections, it could'nt be denied that farmers in many haciendas in Negros were able to free their themselves from slavery through the program.
"Di lahat ng monopolyo sa lupa ay nabuwag. Totoo 'yan. Pero di rin maikakaila na sa pamamagitan ng patuloy na pagkilos ng mga magsasaka, sa paggamit ng mga probisyon sa CARP Law, ay marami ring asyenda na naipamahagi na sa amin tulad ng mga lupaing dating pag-aari ng mga Arroyo, Cuenca, Lopez, Gustilo, Lacson, Jalandoni, Coscolluela, at Ledesma," Jayme said.
[Not all land monopolies were broken up. That's true. But it cannot be denied that through the continuous actions of farmers, using provisions in the CARP Law, many haciendas had already been distributed to us like the landholdings formerly owned by the Arroyos, Cuencas, Gustilos, Lacsons, Jalandonis, Coscolluelas, and Ledesmas.]
Jayme, who started working as a Negros sugarcane farmworker when he was nine years old, is among the CARP beneficiaries of the 50-hectare Hacienda Erico in Sagay City, which used to be controlled by lessor Jaynem Sy. Jayme was awarded 2.58 hectares of the landholding.
"Kasama ng iba pang magsasaka, kumilos ako para ipaglaban ang karapatan ko sa lupang sinasaka sa pamamagitan ng CARP noong taong 2000. Sa hinaba-haba ng laban, noong 2013 po ay nagkalupa ako at ang iba ko pang kasamahan sa asyenda. Di pa po kami mayaman, pero hindi na kami alipin ng asendero. Napapag-aral ko na po ang aking dalawang anak sa kolehiyo, di na po nangangatulong ang aking asawa sa Maynila, mahigit tatlong beses na po kami kumain sa isang araw," said Jayme.
[In year 2000, I, with fellow farmers fought for my right to the land I was tilling through the CARP. After the long struggle, I and my felow workers in the hacienda were finally awarded lands in 2013. We're not rich but we're no longer the slaves of the hacendero. I was able to send my two children to college, my wife no longer works as a maid in Manila, and we can now eat more than three times a day.]
Jayme said that to "cure" CARP's imperfections, farmers were also pushing for the immediate passage of House Bill 4375, which seeks to create an independent Agrarian Reform Commission to review the actual accomplishment of CARP and investigate circumventions and violations of the CARP Law with a view to cause these landholdings to be redistributed to qualified beneficiaries.
HB 4375 does not yet have a counterpart measure at the Senate and needs to be certified by the President as a priority measure.
It will just serve landlord in Malacanang
KMP’s Mariano counters Jayme’s stand on the issue. He said that “the so-called clamor and moves to resurrect the dead CARP led by Aquino’s allies only serve the interest of the politically isolated landlord in Malacanang.”
Anakpawis, another party-list group identified with the mainstream left, is likewise opposing CARP’s resurrection and is pushing for the passage of another agrarian reform measure – House Bill 252 or the Genuine Agrarian Reform Bill (GARB) – that seeks free land distribution and nationalization of agricultural lands.
Under the present CARP, landowners mandated to give up their land are compensated by the government while farmer-beneficiaries (FB) are mandated to amortize for 30 years the lands awarded to them. The GARB proposes the distribution of lands to FBs at no cost. The bill would not give any compensation to landowners.
“GARB was guided by the principles of social justice, nationalism, democracy and human rights, hence it proposes confiscation of lands acquired through unscrupulous means or ‘sullied’ lands, to be distributed free of charge to poor farmers. It also aimed to protect agricultural lands from foreign interests by nationalization and ensure that the fruits of the land (are) enjoyed by the Filipino people,” said Anakpawis party-list Rep. Fernando Hicap.
Anti-CARP 44
On Monday, it was reported that the DAR included members of the Makabayan bloc at the House as among those blocking the passage of HB 4296.
In a report by the Philippine Daily Inquirer, it said that the 44 anti-CARP lawmakers were composed of the House's most powerful, including Gonzales, the richest including Negros and other Visayan lawmakers, and the most radical, who belonged to party-list groups belonging to the Makabayan bloc and identified with the mainstream left such as Bayan Muna, Anakpawis, Gabriela, and Kabataan.
KMP's Mariano assailed the department for including the Makabayan lawmakers in the anti-CARP 44 list, saying “Aquino’s spin doctors and the DAR included the Makabayan bloc in its so-called list of anti-CARP lawmakers to maliciously portray them as anti-land reform and attack GARB."
'Condemnable, appalling'
Meanwhile, in a statement issued Monday, close to 30 groups led by Akbayan Youth criticized the Makabayan and Visayas blocs for thwarting CARP's extension.
"This marriage of political expediency and opportunism serves as a stumbling block to the full implementation and completion of agrarian reform in the country. This reprehensible alliance to block the passage of HB 4296...is an abomination. This is all the more condemnable and appalling given the audacity with which the Makabayan bloc has tried to paint itself as a champion of agrarian reform," the Akbayan-led group said.
The groups said they were not surprised with what Makabayan did because “they previously served as one of the leading obstacles in the passage of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program – Extension with Reforms (CARPER) in 2009 by forging the same odious alliance with the anti-CARPER landlords in Congress.”
“They were, however, embarrassingly defeated by the broad peasant and rural movement, which included different social movements, civil society groups and even the Catholic church leadership, which was represented by Bishop Roderick Pabillo,” the groups said.
http://www.interaksyon.com/article/106570/the-great-left-divide--both-are-pro-farmer-anti-landlord-but-differ-on-ph-land-reform-strategies
