Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program

The Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program, more commonly known as CARP, is an agrarian reform law of the Philippines whose legal basis is the Republic Act No. 6657, otherwise known as the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Law (CARL). It is the redistribution of private and public agricultural lands to help the beneficiaries survive as small independent farmers, regardless of the “tenurial” arrangement. Its goals are to provide landowners equality in terms of income and opportunities, empower land owner beneficiaries to have an equitable land ownership, enhance the agricultural production and productivity, provide employment to more agricultural workers, and put an end to conflicts regarding land ownership.

The agrarian reform is part of the long history of attempts of land reform in the Philippines. The law was outlined by former President Corazon C. Aquino through Presidential Proclamation 131 and Executive Order 229 on June 22, 1987, and it was enacted by the 8th Congress of the Philippines and signed by Aquino on June 10, 1988. In 1998, which was the year that it was scheduled to be completed, the Congress enacted Republic Act No. 8532 to allocate additional funds for the program and extending the automatic appropriation of ill-gotten wealth recovered by the Presidential Commission on Good Governance (PCGG) for CARP until the year 2008.

An amendatory law, CARPER or the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program Extension with Reforms or the Republic Act. 9700 was passed. It extended the deadline of distributing agricultural lands to the farmers for an additional five years. This law also amends other provisions and regulations formerly stated in the CARP. It was signed into law on August 7, 2009 and was set to be accomplished by the year 2014.

The implementation of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program relies heavily on the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR). As the lead implementing agency, the DAR has the responsibility in carrying out the principal aspects of the program, which are Land Tenure Improvement (LTI), Program Beneficiary Development (PBD), and the Agrarian Justice Delivery (AJD).

The Land Tenure Improvement is highly recognized as the most integral aspect of the program. This component seeks to secure the tenurial status of the farmers and farmworkers. The DAR implements this component through Land Acquisition and Distribution (LAD) or Non-land Transfer Schemes.

The Land Acquisition and Distribution involves the redistribution of private and government-owned land to landless farmers and farm workers. Under Section 6 of RA 9700 ( Section 16 of RA 6657 as amended) regarding Land Acquisition, the DAR identifies lands that are eligible for distribution under the CARP with accordance to the law, acquires the land by delivering a notice containing the offer with its corresponding value to the owner should he choose to accept the payment. Following the acquisition of lands under Section 11 of RA 9700(Section 26 of RA 6657 as amended) the DAR distributes these to the qualified beneficiaries, who then pay for the land through the Land Bank of the Philippines or directly to their former owners.

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