[Press Release] Akbayan Decries “Gutting of Agrarian Reform Budget”

Akbayan Representative Walden Bello expressed alarm at what he called the “gutting of the agrarian reform budget” after he witnessed plenary deliberations on the budget of the Department of Agrarian Reform on Wednesday, Sept. 7. Bello’s strong protest was in response to the revelation by Rep. Anna York Bondoc, sponsor of the department’s budget, that…

Human Rights Online Philippines

September 9, 2011

3–4 minutes

Agrarian reform, Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program, Department of Agrarian Reform, Hacienda Luisita, Philippine, Press Release, United States, Walden Bello

Bello’s strong protest was in response to the revelation by Rep. Anna York Bondoc, sponsor of the department’s budget, that support services for agrarian reform would not be funded to the levels required by law. According to Republic Act 9700 or the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform with Reforms Law (CARPER), P150 billion has to be allocated in equal amounts over five years to fund support services. This year’s allocation, at 17.9B falls far short of the P30B that is mandated by CARPER. As a result, admitted Bondoc, credit and other services needed to make agrarian reform a success are drying up.

During her interpellation by a number of members of Congress, Bondoc admitted that the cuts for support services were “were not in consonance with CARPER.” She even appealed to the plenary to pressure the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) to restore the levels of funding required by law. In a brief conversation with Bello, both Bondoc and DAR chief Gil delos Reyes expressed distress over the budgetary cuts, admitting they could sabotage agrarian reform.

“I am very bothered that the DBM is not following the law that we passed in 2009,” said Bello. “If the budget is not realigned to meet CARPER, this would constitute a grave violation of the law, to the detriment of already impoverished farmer-beneficiaries.”

The Akbayan representative stated that he was sympathetic to the DBM’s effort to balance revenues and expenditures given concerns over the deficit. He said that unlike some members of Congress, he was not advocating taking money from the P39 billion allocation for the Conditional Cash Transfer Program (CCT) to fund shortfalls in other agencies. He however pointed out another way to remedy the seeming insufficiency of funds for various socio-economic programs.

“There are other sources of funds for the completion of the agrarian reform program, for instance, the allocation for debt service, which now comes to P738.570B or nearly 30 per cent of the budget,” he stated. “Servicing a debt that has been paid many times over is crippling everything, including agrarian reform.”

Bello said that support services spell the difference between success and failure in land reform. “In Taiwan and Korea, support services were integral to the successful programs. In the Philippines, absence of support services condemns land reform beneficiaries to turn control over their lands to usurers.”

Akbayan Representative Kaka Bag-ao also expressed concern over revelations that there were talks to abolish DAR after 2013 and incorporate some of its current activities into the Department of Agriculture. “This is simply not in the cards,” asserted Bag-ao.

According to Bello, leaving the allocation for Agrarian Reform at its dismal level would only reflect the administration’s lackluster efforts at delivering the promise of land reform and fuel controversies over the Palace’s stand on the issue.

“Where does the administration really stand on the question of agrarian reform?” Bello concluded. “People will look at the DAR budget for an answer, and that, I am afraid to say, does not come across as a positive one.”

PRESS RELEASE
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