The utter failure of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) was recently exposed when the Commission on Audit (COA) revealed the irregularities it discovered in the Department of Agrarian Reform’s program and expenditures in 2023.

In its report, the COA criticized DAR for giving land to 235 unqualified beneficiaries, including retired police and minors. Many beneficiaries lacked the required qualifications, such as the desire or ability to till the land or as residents where the granted land was located. The COA also found that 117 beneficiaries received land beyond what was legally allowed, which undermined the effectiveness of the reform.

The COA also criticized the DAR’s ineffective system for monitoring beneficiaries and the condition of distributed lands. Some lands simply became idle when beneficiaries left or died. Numerous lands were converted from agricultural to commercial and residential use. The local governments lacked proper evaluation resulting in widespread abuse and anomalies.

The COA also revealed that DAR exhausted almost its entire budget, or 97.94% of ₱2.13 billion, but only achieved 32.94% of its target for registering Certificates of Land Ownership Award (CLOA) in 2022.

In light of this, the Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipias denounced the DAR under the Marcos regime for perpetuating farmers’ landlessness.

“The Marcos Jr administration’s gross failure to address the primary problems of land monopoly and widespread land disputes demonstrates neglect of farmers’ rights and welfare,” KMP farmer leader Danilo Ramos said. The COA’s findings, he said, proves DAR’s systematic failure and the bogus CARP.

“The decades of the so-called land reform have done nothing to dismantle land monopolies or resolve land disputes. Instead, CARP allowed corruption and neglect, betraying the beneficiaries of land reform that it claims to serve.”

KMP calls for the implementation of a genuine agrarian reform program that prioritizes the free distribution of land to farmers and the dismantling of land monopolies. The group also condemns the administration of President Marcos Jr for continuing to turn a blind eye to the demands of farmers while pushing neoliberal policies that exacerbate landlessness and rural poverty.