Proper land distribution and the comprehensive agrarian reform program are the culprits on why the poor remain poor up to this time. Let us consider the huge amount of money spent by the Department of Agrarian Reform in its unschooled implementation of the CARP where titled agricultural lands were subdivided into farm lots for distribution to tenants in the country only for its own Department of Agrarian Reform Adjudication Board (DARAB) to declare its own program null & void where most of the recipients of the OLT titles have already fully paid for the lands with the Land Bank of the Philippines. Will the DAR come out with the figures to show how much of the peoples money was spent for this program.  The law came too late to say that agricultural lands covered by Homestead Patents are exempt from the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program and the DAR has to re-do what it has already done to the prejudice of the poor tenants and expense of the taxpayers’ money. 

What is more nauseating is a situation where the tenant farmers are charged in the regular courts for estafa for not giving the share of the landowner and the accused is required to post a bailbond of P40,000.00. The poor tenant-farmer in this particular case had to borrow money to secure his temporary liberty or languish in jail for obeying the letter-directive from the Land Bank of the Philippines against remitting the share to the landowner because LBP has already paid him for the lands distributed to the tenant-farmers. 

What is more horrid is the complaint of a farmer who was allegedly forced out of his farmland by a DAR official claiming ownership of the land by way of firing at him and his co-workers with the use of his gun at the time of planting which made them scamper to safety. Scared-to-death, the complainant and his witnesses ran to a nearby municipality to report the incident even forgetting to drop by the barangay hall to inform the barangay officials of what transpired. 

As a result of this incident, the complainant filed an administrative complaint against the DAR official for grave abuse of authority with the Ombudsman for Mindanao but it was later dismissed accordingly because there was no barangay or police blotter to back up the complaint. As a consequence, the DAR official succeeded to own the land and the farmer displaced for life.

Also, a review of our Public Land Law is in order and its implementation monitored from the top echelon of the department or bureau concerned. 

Actual cultivants of the public land, meaning, agricultural lands that are not covered by either administrative or judicial titles continue to ask why the Department of Agrarian Reform recognizes claimants as landlords of the land they till when the doctrine enshrined in the Public Land Law states that the tiller of the land is deemed the owner of the land? 

Hereabout, this situation exists almost anywhere where self-proclaimed owners of the public lands demand rental or share from the tiller of the land. Their only basis of land ownership is their tax declarations which can be easily secured from the Assessor’s Office by people with proper connection. 

What happens to the concept of the Public Land Law? A tribal non-government organization reported this matter to the Director of Lands in Manila. His Office acted on it, so it was reported but the directive addressed to the Regional Director to investigate the complaint is nowhere to be found. 

In other words, government officials in the field are the ones sowing discontent to the masses while the Director of Lands is truly unaware of what is happening down his turf. 

Last update : 22-08-2007 15:41

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