THROUGH
AGRARIAN/ASSET DEVELOPMENT
TERMINAL REPORT
By
Terminal Report
July-October 2004
Gunnar Myrdal
Nobel Laureate in Economics
The Philippines remains an agrarian society. About 60% of Filipinos reside in the
rural areas and 50% of the labor force is involved in agriculture. Of the 12 million
Filipinos engaged in agriculture not more than two million own the land they till.
Agriculture accounts for 27% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Yet, in 2000,
two thirds of impoverished Filipinos are rural poor.
Aside from this, gender discrimination intensifies inequality at the national level,
particularly with women’s rights to land. The predicament and struggle of peasant
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women stem from institutional discrimination against the rights of women despite
their important role in production and agriculture.
Meanwhile, those who were able to acquire lands but do not have an organization to
support them, lose their lands due to increasing rural indebtedness. Illness and hunger
of the rural poor are the main motivations to sell the land, while wealthy landowners
buy the lands at very low prices. The indebtedness of the poor farmers is increasing
their hunger and diminishing their means to repay loans.
The strength of PDI as an NGO lies in its participatory approach not only toward
development programming but also in transforming these development initiatives at
the ground level into policy for advocacy at the national level and in its negotiating
strategy to prompt the government to provide land and resolve issues in favor of the
farmers.
Sustainable human development for the poor peasants mean sustainable livelihood,
including food security, economic, social and political empowerment and a
sustainable natural environment. Land reform, including legally secure access to land,
is one of the most important preconditions for sustainable rural development.
The farmers and indigenous people can only achieve sustainability if they own the
land, have control over it as a factor of production, and have the right to decide on the
use of the land.
To correct the skewed distribution of land and resources, land must be redistributed,
and this must be accompanied by institutional capability building, plus the provision
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of economic support services. The direct participation of the peasants and indigenous
people in all the phases of development must be ensured.
In other words, development work should integrate negotiations with the DAR and
the government for asset redistribution with the peasants and the indigenous people in
the forefront, accompanied by support service delivery and social infrastructure
building. One without the other will not spell sustainable rural development in the
countryside because genuine agrarian reform is equal to land transfer, plus economic
support services and strengthened social infrastructure.
To this end, the READ Program, three years into its implementation and balanced by
PDI’s participatory approach to community development and expanded activities, has
been continuously working to alleviate poverty in four fronts where reform can have
the greatest impact: on social equity, by providing the poorest of the poor with access
to basic services for survival; on economic prosperity, by ensuring that the basic
sectors have access to productive assets that allow them to contribute to national
growth through an asset reform program or the redistribution of physical and resource
assets, particularly land and credit; on ecological security, by incorporating the
parameters of sustainable development in the management and utilization of natural
resources; on responsible and responsive governance, by democratizing structures
and processes to allow the meaningful participation of key stakeholders in policy and
decision making.
Based on the Financial Statement for the period ending October 31, 2004 and
Auditor’s Report, the total grant received by PDI from EED/EZE amounted to
P4,106,427.41. PDI’s interest income reached P4,837.12 while its gain in foreign
exchange amounted to P15,095.23. Its own means reached P1,527,497.64. Thus total
revenue is P5,653,857.40.
Based on the total expenditure of P8,624,115.22, for the period under review, the
following have been accomplished:
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A. Institutional Development Building on Social Capital
Rural peasants now exhibit empowerment and good governance in their social
responsibilities through collective decision making. Strategic planning and
assessment processes are already being led and conducted by peasant leaders. Local
negotiations on land issues with the Department of Agrarian Reform, the
Local Government Units and line agencies are also led by them and supported by
PDI. This demonstrates a clear measure of their capacity and intrinsic individual and
organizational strength. Peasants can now articulate and discuss issues and problems
with authorities and government personnel. More importantly, they know and assert
their rights as peasants.
A provincial peasant women’s federation (PPWF) has also been established in each of
the six provinces in Central Luzon – Zambales, Nueva Ecija, Bulacan, Bataan,
Pampanga and Tarlac. The PPWFs formed a regional women’s federation known as
Pagkakaisa ng Samahang Kababaihan Se Gitnang Luzon (PASAMAKA-GL). The
PASAMAKA-GL is initially composed of 24 women’s organizations comprising
1,025 core members and has direct command over 6,150 peasant women. It actively
participates in the campaign for land rights and negotiations with the government on
agrarian reform issues. The PASAMAKA-GL is not only at the forefront of
enterprise development building in their respective areas but also active in local
governance. The lists of PPWF members are found in Annex I.
Peasant women are now relatively less burdened with laborious tasks and
responsibilities in their households and farms because they better understand their
human rights and autonomy within families and communities. They have gained more
control over their own lives in matters relating to production and reproduction.
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1,308 members and influences about 7,848 IPs. The PASAKA-IGTAG aims to
achieve self-reliance through their land rights claim in their ancestral domain and
thereby achieve food security at the community level. Negotiations with the
government on land survey are now on going.
2. Trainings
PDI has conducted several activities aimed at institutional development building for
social capital formation of the people’s organizations all over Central Luzon. These
activities range from training to consultation. The NMGL, the IP federation and the
women’s federation also hold regular monthly meetings for the federations. The POs
are now having independent initiatives in policy advocacy, campaigns and
government negotiations at the local levels. The POs are challenged to keep this
momentum and further engage in social capital formation. Trainings that have been
conducted under the READ Program were the following: 1.) Self- Evaluation and
Spiral Dynamics, August 9-13, 2004, Brentwood Hotel, Baguio City with 30 PO
leaders; 2.) Team Learning and Systems Thinking, September 20-24, 2004,
Brentwood Hotel, Baguio City, with 25 participants; 3.) Basic Course in Community
Organizing, September 6-7, 2004, Brentwood Hotel, Baguio City, with 27
participants and 4.) Staff Development Training: (a) Self-Actualization, September
23, 2004, Brentwood, Baguio City; (b) Team Building: Visioning, July 2004, Ilocos
Norte.
Education is a basic need. However, in a country like the Philippines, food is always
a top priority and the other basic needs are of lower importance. The effect of
government neglect has been extreme cases of deprivations in the country.
PDI has extended support in putting poor but deserving students through college. The
right to higher education is critical in the overall context of development as it is one
of the important processes in ensuring sustainable peasant and IP communities.
Having their children complete a college education opens new avenues and hope for
poor families. New ideas and skills can be injected by the youth to effect
development in the countryside. The youth of today holds the future of the country. In
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this regard, PDI initiated a scholarship program and today has a total of 72 college
scholars. Fifty college scholars are financed by ADFE, 12 by SSF and 10 by ESP.
Non-Formal Education
NFE includes a functional literacy program for non-literate and semi-literate adults
that integrates basic literacy with livelihood skills training.
NFE or alternative basic education allows children and adults access to learning
outside the government sector. Its primary objective is to empower the indigenous
people by giving them the opportunity to analyze their environment, to engage in
critical analysis, deep reflection and local vision building of their own families and
learning processes through the use of innovative learning methodologies. NFE
facilitates people’s participation in social transformation by providing people with the
necessary values, attitudes, skills and abilities to face the outside challenges.
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B. The Right to Land: the Process of Land transfer
Subtotal 326.24
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From the total 629.20 hectares, 302.96 hectares have been acquired and distributed
during the first semester of 2004 to 300 farmer beneficiaries and 326.24 hectares
have been acquired and distributed in the second semester to 188 farmer beneficiaries
from the provinces of Nueva Ecija, Pampanga, Bulacan and Zambales.
81%
19%
As of October 2004, under the READ Program, PDI facilitated from DAR, the release
of 3,222.19 hectares of prime agricultural land to the peasants and indigenous people
of Central Luzon. This is a remarkable achievement because this is actually 19% of
the total CARP scope in Central Luzon of the Department of Agrarian Reform.
After the land has been acquired, economic support services are critical for the
peasants to be sustainable under an increasingly unfavorable production environment
due to erratic rainfall caused by global warming, the decline of soil fertility due to
increased application of agrochemical inputs, the high cost of production inputs,
inadequate technical and managerial capacity of the farmers and the insufficient
support of the government to post harvest facilities, credit, marketing and extension.
On top of these, the peasants have to compete with well-organized, well-financed and
technologically advanced corporate and large-scale farms of developed economies
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courtesy of WTO. All of these have contributed to the decline of farm productivity
that has resulted in the further impoverishment of the peasants. They are
comparatively in the same state as when they were tenants and farm workers. Those
who are helpless in the face of poverty resorted to illegal selling of land rights and
mortgaging. The situation leads to a new cycle of land concentration among the
financial elites.
In this context, activities that support skills upgrading and the development of
income-generating activities for the rural poor that contribute directly to improving
access to food are being conducted such as small-scale livelihood projects that can be
done at home or allow for processing at the household level.
Activities that contribute to food security generally have the objective of improving
agricultural capacity to produce. Projects that support crop, livestock and forestry,
increase the income of the poor – a larger part of which is in turn invested in
improving the resource base and thus strengthening longer-term sustainability.
From July to December, 2004, various small projects have been initiated in the target
areas of Central Luzon and Northern Palawan, specifically in the provinces of
Bulacan, Nueva Ecija, Palawan, Zambales, and Bataan. The Small Projects grants are
as follows:
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Rafael Selestial
10 Palawan Hog Dispersal Luac Women Asso. 25,000
Monila
10 Zambales Hog Dispersal SKP, Violeta Vidal 2,500
10 Zambales Hog Dispersal SKT, Josephine Elamparo 2,500
10 Zambales Hog dispesal SKT, Pat Amir 2,500
10 Zambales Hog Dispersal SKT, Salvacion Canno 2,500
14 Zambales Hog dispersal SKKP, Elsa Novo 2,500
14 Zambales Hog dispersal; NAKAP, excelencio Canno 2,500
14 Zambales Hog Dispersal SKBA, Josephine Elan 2,500
14 Zambales Hog Dispersal LAKAS, Nenita Dumulot 2,500
15 Zambales Pasambot Nursery PASAMBOT, 18,000
Carlito Dumulot
16 Zambales Manggahan Project PASAMBOT 14,400
16 Nueva Ecija Carabao Loan Freddie Segundo 25,000
TOTAL……………………………………………………………………Php 903,400
=========
As of October 31, 2004, there has been a total repayment of P193,972.19 within the
July to December 2004 period, with P39,517.19 coming from the province of Nueva
Ecija. The Summary Report for Small Projects, including repayment, is contained in
Annex III
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D. Participatory Research, Policy Advocacy and Linkage Work
The participatory research and policy advocacy work of PDI has gained ground. The
integration of development work with a systematic participatory research and policy
advocacy has resulted in policy change in handling agrarian reform. This has been done
together with other agrarian reform stakeholders from people’s organizations and other
non-governmental organizations. Many cases have been brought to the open as a result
of joint efforts to push agrarian reform and rural development.
Several bills are awaiting deliberation in Congress, namely: House Bills 247, 279,
2831, 417 and the DAR bill. The last one is being endorsed by the DAR in the
Senate. All these bills allow the farmland collateralization and foreclosure by
banks and non-bank financial institutions.
b.) Guarding the Agrarian Reform Fund (ARF). The civil society, composed of
the members of the agrarian reform community and the private sector, called for a
congressional inquiry to check and secure the newly acquired Marcos wealth
which is allocated for the agrarian reform program.
The victims of human rights violations during the Marcos dictatorship and the
relatives and supporters of victims of involuntary disappearances during the
Marcos, Aquino, Ramos and Estrada administrations are also closely watching
over the funds for the benefit of their families.
c.) Agrarian Reform, Policies, and Institutional Change. PDI, together with
NMGL, are at the forefront of structural and institutional changes in the DAR.
- In a dialogue with the previous DAR Secretary Rene Villa, LAKAS (PO
of Zambales) and PDI petitioned for the investigation of the DAR
Adjudication judge for his unreasonable decision favoring the increase of
land valuation in Pasambot from P34,700 per hectare to P400,000.00. This
is 1000% more than the original valuation. The DAR secretary himself
ordered an immediate investigation and upon confirmation of the unjust
and irrational decision, directed the reversal of the decision and removed
the judge in Zambales.
- The voice of PDI and NMGL was heard in reforming and streamlining the
DAR bureaucracy, e.g. making NCIP an attached agency rather than be
directly under the DAR.
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d.) Local Governance. Peasants and women farmers are now participating in local
governance activities. In fact, two have been elected to the Local Government
Councils in their areas and others are active in the local health units and
livelihood committees. The Aetas and the Igorots now attend the session at the
local municipal and provincial legislative councils to voice out their concerns and
problems. They also participate in the development planning sessions of the local
councils, and recommending policies and programs for their communities.
e.) Food Security. PDI and NMGL have called for changes in the agricultural
policies that are detrimental to the interest of peasants in negotiations with the
Department of Agriculture. PDI-NMGL celebrated World Food Day by rallying
at the Department of Agriculture against its unnecessary importation of primary
agricultural products like rice, which makes the Philippines a net food importer
even if our agricultural sector has the capacity to provide for our food needs if
only given the required government support.
PDI work has gained ground at all levels and has become an example of pushing
policy advocacy based on ground level program and research. The grassroots program
initiated by PDI has become living examples on how policies are reformed based on
ground level cases through primary research.
2. Participatory Research
PDI’s Participatory Research aims to monitor the tangible impact of its program
implementation and service delivery at the ground level. Integrated with this policy
study and research will be the analysis of the external environment that affect directly
and indirectly the work at the grassroots. Such analysis will be the basis for future
courses of action.
a.) PDI Impact Evaluation. This book is the reproduction of the evaluation by
the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development of
PDI’s READ Program. PDI is highly honored with the results of the
evaluation in line with the German Government’s Program of Action 2015
addressing the “comprehensive human development and protecting the
vulnerable” by focusing on agrarian reform beneficiaries and the indigenous
people. The result of the evaluation has been discussed with the public,
including the POs, other NGOs and the government. It is now being
disseminated and circulated in the agrarian reform community.
b.) Alternative Learning Systems: The Non-Formal Education. PDI and the
Department of Education have produced several NFE modules on functional
literacy to be used by the parateachers.
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c.) Gender and Development, July 2004. A training module produced by PDI
for gender and development that deals with self actualization and
conscientization. It deals with improving gender consciousness that will lead
to the understanding of equal opportunities in society. Women are able to
recognize their urgent needs and problems, and express their concerns. It
equips women with better communication skills, paving the way for them to
become active in their communities.
December Issue
“Baliktanaw sa 2004”
(2004 in Retrospect)
October-November Issue
“Edukasyon para sa mga Tagbanua”
(CLOAs distributed in Laur, Nueva Ecija)
July Issue
“Civil Society: Panatilihin si Ponce bilang Kalihim ng DAR”
(Civil Society: Let Ponce stay on as DAR Secretary)
June Issue
“Ika-16 ng Anibersaryo ng CARP sinalubong ng protesta”
(Celebration of CARP’s 16th Anniversary marked by Protests)
May Issue
“Pondo sa Repormang Agraryo ginagamit sa kampanya ni GMA?”
(Agrarian Funds being used in GMA Campaign?)
March-April Issue
“Repormang Agraryo batayan ng boto ng mga magsasaka”
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(Policy on Agrarian Reform determines the peasant block vote)
January Issue
“Baliktanaw ng 2003”
(2003 in Retrospect)
February Issue
“Katiwalian sa DAR Tinuligsa ng PDI at NMGL”
(PDI-NMGL Condemns corruption in DAR)
PDI’s critique of the government even extends to editorial cartoons as shown here in one of the Editorials
of Usaping Bayan tackling the issue of corruption in the Philippine mlitary.
• On Institutional Building.
More than physical infrastructure, PDI regards institutional building as a more lasting element in any
project undertaking. Through the READ Program, regional peasant and women’s federations have been
established while providing social infrastructure building to the indigenous people in Central Luzon that
help them to organize and collectively assess their condition. The indigenous people’s organization of
Aetas, Tagbanuas, Dumagats and Igorots were formed into the PASAMAKA-IGTAD. The READ Program
also stimulated the participation of women and led to the formation of provincial women’s organizations in
Central Luzon. The POs have notably been functioning as civil society groups based on their LTI and
enterprise activities, including involvement in socio-political issues and concerns at the regional and
national levels.
The READ program has restored basic endowments to rural households whose primary means of
generating livelihood, accumulating wealth, and transferring of resources to the next generation is through
land ownership.
The right of the peasants and the indigenous people to the land they till has been vigorously pursued in
the halls of justice. PDI has successfully assisted the various POs of Central Luzon in acquiring their land
rights and in pushing the government to provide land to till. Peasant Groups all over the Philippines are
now seeking the support of PDI in this regard.
The government’s problem is not only how to acquire and redistribute the remaining 3 million hectares
nationwide, especially the 1.3 million private agricultural lands, but also the problem of developing the 5
million hectares already distributed.
In support of the peasants’ claim to land, the READ Program provided economic support to the target
areas that are demand driven and based on local priorities. This was done during the PO’s area-based
strategic planning conferences. All the target areas underwent an Area-Based Strategic Planning
conference spearheaded by leaders of the POs themselves using the participatory approach to
programming specific economic activities as was taught to the POs by PDI. Economic support services are
critical for the peasants to be sustainable under an increasingly unfavorable production environment.
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The creation and management of village-level economic project activities that help to improve access to
food leads to the strengthening of food security institutions.
PDI has been working in Central Luzon and Northern Palawan for more than 12 years now. Gains have
been achieved in empowering the people through their transformation from being victims to becoming
owner-cultivators of their own land, actively participating in local governance. The expanded activities and
programs helped in the formation of organizations and enterprise development of various POs and
women’s groups all over the region. The PDI has also assisted the POs in land tenurial improvement in
Zambales, Nueva Ecija, Pampanga, Tarlac, Bulacan, and Bataan.
PDI’s commitment to service and its participatory approach to community development, and its strength
in negotiations strategy in dealing with the government have earned the respect of the agrarian reform
community locally, nationally and internationally.
The strength of PDI as an NGO lies in its participatory approach not only toward development
programming but also in transforming these development initiatives at the ground level into policy
advocacy at the national level, and in its negotiating strategy to oblige the government to provide land
and resolve issues for the farmers.
V. Project Objective
The READ Program is part of the process to achieve sustainable human development.
Sustainable human development for the poor peasants means sustainable livelihood, including food
security, economic, social and political empowerment and a sustainable natural environment. Land reform,
including legally secure access to land, is one of the most important preconditions for sustainable rural
development.
READ aims to build autonomous people’s organizations that will engage the government in agrarian
reform and rural development concerns. READ also aims to undertake campaigns on agrarian reform and
rural development related issues – where people are at the core of reform initiatives, where there is
participation and empowerment of all sectors of society in development decision-making and processes
PDI does its best to promote democratic participation as well as responsible and responsive governance.
PDI upholds democratization structures and processes to allow the meaningful participation of key
stakeholders in policy- and decision-making.
Facilitating Factors
1. The state reformist within the DAR bureaucracy responds positively to pressure from pro-reform
civil society like PDI and NMGL.
2. PDI and NMGL were able to effectively pressure and expand collaboration with other CARP
Implementing Agencies (CIAs) like the DENR, NCIP and Land Bank.
3. PDI had provided a training and development program that motivated farmer volunteers and
created a ripple effect that multiplied the number of conscientized farmers through skills training.
4. Farmers are now able to articulate their problems and needs to the local officials and field
personnel immediately and on the spot. Officials and field personnel also benefited from the
timely and reliable information on problems and needs, with the net effect of improving their
accountability to the farmers.
Constraining Factors
1. Opponents of reform have not given up the fight. Landowners and land speculators put up
barriers that range from exploiting the loopholes of the agrarian reform law to howling against
the lack of substantial gains.
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2. Dealing with public lands, DENR performance is hampered by bureaucratic malfunctions and
budgetary constraints, technical limitations or pure complacency. This is very problematic
because it is the only government agency tasked to survey, map out and approve plans for
CARPable lands.
3. Poor relations and coordination of DAR with LGUs, especially in view of the decentralization
process under the Local Government Code of 1992, specifically on the local government’s
authority to reclassify and convert land use. This is one of the long legal battles the farmers will
encounter in the process of CARP coverage.
4. The existence of armed political organizations that assert autonomy or independence from the
state. Specifically in the province of Tarlac, where PDI had a very difficult time organizing
farmers due to safety considerations.
1. For farmers, conflicts around land rights and benefits from the produce have been resolved by
the program, with the assignment to them of new rights and responsibility to make the land
productive.
2. Land redistribution can be an effective political instrument to buy peace and restore people’s
confidence in government. However, its economic return may not be seen immediately.
3. Technology transfer is effective only when the technology itself is applicable and appropriate for
the capacity of the poor. The communication skills of the staff also play an important role in the
process.
4. Activities of the farmer organizations should always go along with other social, political, economic
endeavors. In order to be successful in mobilizing and convincing farmers, there should be an
effective and persuasive plan that can bring about benefits to farmers.
5. Policy reforms and institutional arrangements are necessary to tap the DA’s budget for
beneficiary development
For a brighter future of our children, we must remain steadfast, united and collectively determined to
pursue our common vision and bring our country towards sustained growth and development.
There’s still hope.
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Peasants become
active participants –
POs serve as new
The POs and NMGL t
POs use meta legal
exercise vigilance CARP
tactics to influence
implementation
Observed changes
through increased Narrowing the gap between
Fast tracking and peasants and DAR–
completion in LTI participation in decision building new alliances
acquisition and distribution ki
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