Nearly three decades after the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) was signed into law, land reform has yet to be completed in the Philippines. Data from the Department of Agrarian Reform website show that as of the end of 2013, the government has acquired and distributed 6.9 million hectares of land, or 88 percent of the total land subject to agrarian reform.

After three deadline extensions, there are again clamors to extend the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program Extension with Reforms (CARPER) for another two years after June 30, 2016. This is not the first time that agrarian reform deadlines have not been met. CARPER is an extension of an extension of the agrarian reform program.

The protracted period of implementation and the pending completion of the CARP have resulted in underinvestments in the agriculture sector. Landowners are hesitant to invest while their farms are under acquisition processing. The CARP has also failed to break up large estates. A highly politicized program protected by interest groups with ties to the country’s political elite, many influential landowners have managed to evade the CARP. According to a study by Marife Ballesteros, a PIDS senior research fellow, various schemes are employed by landowners, such as increasing retained areas by registering excess holdings in the name of family members or dummies, mortgaging land to defer land reform, converting land to non-agricultural use, and giving farmers the option to own shares of stock instead of land, a method used by the owners of Hacienda Luisita.*

Once small farmers have the land, the next issue they have to confront is how to finance crop production. The wealth bias of the rural credit market is a major constraint to them. As a result, many farmers resort to selling their land or pawning their emancipation patents and certificates of land ownership awards.

Providing secure property rights to farm workers to foster greater productivity and to enable them to capture the benefits of agriculture is a fundamental objective of the CARP. More than two million beneficiaries benefited from the land transfer program; 84 percent of them acquired individual ownership rights that gave them full control over land operation and management. In another study, Ballesteros stressed the critical role of land administration and management for the successful implementation of the CARP. She revealed that this aspect is fraught with weak land policy and poor land administration issues that resulted in deficient land records, lack of information sharing among government land agencies, tedious land titling and registration process, and unclear land policies. All of these, in addition to the legal maneuvering of influential landowners, have caused the lengthy implementation of the CARP, the flawed land redistribution and land retention, and the incomplete transfer of property rights.

Secure property rights are a necessary condition to reduce poverty in the Philippines, which is largely dominant in agricultural areas. The completion of the CARP, resolution of agrarian reform issues, and provision of adequate support services to farmers, including physical infrastructure, will facilitate the rehabilitation of the agricultural sector and help fulfill the path to inclusive growth.

You may access PIDS studies on agrarian reform from the SocioEconomic Research Portal for the Philippines. Simply type ‘agrarian reform’, ‘CARP’, ‘poverty, agriculture, land management,’ ‘property rights’, and other relevant keywords in the Search box.

1. CARP Institutional Assessment in a Post-2008 Transition Scenario: Implications for Land Administration and Management
2. Land Rental Market Activity in Agrarian Reform Areas: Evidence from the Philippines
3. The Cost of Redistributive Land Reform in the Philippines: Assessment of PD 27 and RA 6657 (CARL)
4. Poverty and Agriculture in the Philippines: Trends in Income Poverty and Distribution
5. Regional Integration, Inclusive Growth, and Poverty: Enhancing Employment Opportunities for the Poor
6. Targeting the Agricultural Poor: The Case of PCIC's Special Programs
7. Post-2008 CARP: Extension with critical reforms
8. Property Rights in Land Reform Areas
9. Has Land Reform Improved on Landownership Inequality? Evidence from Philippine Rice Growing Villages

*In 2005, the previous administration through the Presidential Agrarian Reform Council (PARC) revoked the stock distribution option (SDO). What followed was a lengthy court battle after the owners of Hacienda Luisita challenged the PARC’s decision. In 2010, the Supreme Court came out with a decision that upheld the option of each beneficiary to choose either land or shares; this was again disputed by the landowners. Finally, in 2012, the Supreme Court upheld with finality the 2005 decision of the PARC to revoke the SDO. A total of 4,915 hectares of the estate were ordered by the Supreme Court to be distributed to 6,296 farm workers of the hacienda. (Sources: Cruz, Elfren. 2013. Hacienta Luisita and agrarian reform. The Philippine Star, 3 October 2013; Department of Agrarian Reform website, Awarding of Hacienda Luisita farm lots almost complete, http://www.dar.gov.ph/dar-in-the-news/739-awarding-of-hacienda-luisita-farm-lots-almost-completed-read-more-http-newsinfo-inquirer-net-604875-awarding-of-hacienda-luisita-farm-lots-almost-completed).

PIDS to host annual conference of APEC study centers

The Philippine Institute for Development Studies (PIDS), lead convenor of the Philippine APEC Study Center Network (PASCN), is organizing the 2015 APEC Study Centers Consortium (ASCC) Conference which will be held on May 12-13, 2015 in Boracay Island, Philippines. For more details, visit the ASCCC 2015 WEBSITE.

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26 May 2015
Pulong Saliksikan on Out-of-School Children (OOSC) in the Philippines
Venue: C.P. Romulo Hall, NEDA sa Makati Bldg., Makati City

19 May 2015
The Philippine Business and Economic Outlook for 2015 and Beyond
Venue: C.P. Romulo Hall, NEDA sa Makati Bldg., Makati City

12-13 May 2015
2015 APEC Study Centers Consortium (ASCC) Conference
Venue: Boracay Island, Aklan

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PIDS is now considering applicants for the following positions:

- Two (2) Research Analysts
- Two (2) Research Fellows
- One (1) Division Chief for Research Dissemination and Public Affairs Division
- One (1) Division Chief III for Publication and Circulation Division
- One (1) Supervising Research Specialist

For more information about these job opportunities, click here.

Call for Papers: Philippine Journal of Development

The Philippine Institute for Development Studies (PIDS) is inviting submissions to the Philippine Journal of Development (PJD). The PJD is a peer‐reviewed journal published twice a year by PIDS. Now on its 40th year, PJD considers original, unpublished papers on economic development, political economy, public administration, foreign relations, and other fields/topics, which are policy oriented and may or may not explicitly have a bearing on the Philippines. Book reviews are also accepted. The theme or topic of the book should fall within the scope of the articles accepted for publication. The target readers of PJD include researchers, educators, policymakers, and development planners. For guidelines in the preparation of articles, please refer to www.pids.gov.ph/ris/publications /pjd/pjd_guidelines.html. Inquiries and submissions should be forwarded to the Managing Editor at ssiar@mail.pids.gov.ph.

RESEARCH PAPER

• RPS 2015-01: Promoting Inclusive Growth through the 4Ps
  by Celia M. Reyes, Aubrey D. Tabuga, Christian D. Mina, and Ronina D. Asis
  

The Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) of the Philippines marks its fifth year of implementation in 2013 since its inception in 2008. The first batch of 4Ps beneficiaries will graduate from the program in several months while the government continues to expand its implementation, devising along the way several variants that it deems necessary to address the many facets of poverty. As program graduation nears, many questions arise as to what to expect from this program. At this point, it may be fitting to draw together assessments that have been conducted so far and to look into some important issues in terms of design and implementation. This paper seeks to answer the question of whether expanding the program would likely yield better results. It discusses the outstanding issues raised against the program, most especially those that bear on the program’s ability to facilitate inclusive growth. Click here for the full article

DEVELOPMENT RESEARCH NEWS

• DRN 2015 Vol. XXXIII No. 1: Policy and Ethical Implications of the Water-Food-Energy Nexus
  by Gilberto M. Llanto

This issue of the Development Research News focuses on the significance of an integrated approach in analyzing problems and finding solutions, otherwise known as ‘nexus thinking’, which is rooted in the ‘systems thinking’ approach. The main feature delves on the relevance of adopting a nexus approach in formulating policies that affect water, food, and energy resources. A feature also tackles insights on how the Philippines can take advantage of the ASEAN integration, specifically highlighting the need to further liberalize the services sector where the Philippines has a competitive advantage and attract more investments by improving the quality of infrastructure services. Articles about the National Greening Program, the K to 12, and the recognition given to the Institute as one of the world’s best think tanks in the recent 2014 Global Go To Think Tanks Report complete this quarter’s issue. Click here for the full article

DISCUSSION PAPERS

• DP 2015-28: Grassroots Participatory Budgeting Process in Negros Province
  by Fatima Lourdes del Prado, Gabriel Antonio Florendo, and Maureen Ane Rosellon

This paper is a narrative account and assessment of the grassroots participatory budgeting (GPB) process in three municipalities of Negros Province, namely, Sagay City, Hinigaran, and Cauayan. The GPB process was implemented with the objective of empowering civil society organizations (CSOs) to engage with local government and national government agencies in local development planning. This study is a rapid assessment of the GPB process that involved interviews and focus group discussions with key stakeholders from the local government and civil society, and collection of relevant documents to examine how the GPB FY 2015 planning process and prioritization of projects were implemented on the ground on the aspects of CSO participation, LGU-CSO engagement, and integration of GPB process in the local planning process. It was also aimed at identifying bottlenecks in the implementation of subprojects identified in the FY 2013 and FY 2014 GPB process. The paper also provides some insights on areas for further improvement in the subsequent rounds. Click here for the full article

• DP 2015-27: Bottom-up Budgeting FY 2015 Assessment: Camarines Sur
  by Joyce Anne Maramot, Donald B. Yasay, and Reinier de Guzman

Bottom-up budgeting is an adaptation of the participatory budgeting model in identifying and providing solutions to poverty at the municipal/city level. Leaders of civil society organizations engage with local government unit officials in formulating a poverty alleviation plan to be considered in preparing the budget of national agencies the following fiscal year. This paper reports on how the guideline was implemented in three municipalities in Camarines Sur. The study then presents suggestions and recommendations to improve future project planning and monitoring. Click here for the full article

• DP 2015-26: Bottom-up Budgeting Process Assessment: Agusan del Norte
  by Danileen Kristel C. Parel, Keith C. Detros, and Christine Ma. Grace R. Salinas

The Aquino administration through the Human Development and Poverty Reduction Cluster and Good Governance and Anti-Corruption Cluster launched the bottom-up budgeting (BUB) exercise in 2012. The strategy hopes to empower civil society organizations (CSOs) and citizens’ groups to engage local government and national government agencies and make them more responsive to people’s needs. Since the first round, the BUB process has improved significantly in terms of the level of CSO participation, clarity of guidelines, and the process as a whole. It has made planning and budgeting more inclusive and reflective of the local needs from the grassroots level. Despite these improvements, some issues and concerns still need to be addressed in terms of CSO engagement, process facilitation, social preparation, project identification and prioritization, subproject implementation, and service delivery. This paper assesses the FY 2015 planning process as well as the FY 2013 subproject implementation in three municipalities in Agusan del Norte, and explores areas for further improvement in the implementation of the subsequent rounds of the BUB. Click here for the full article

• DP 2015-25: Assessment of the Bottom-up Budgeting Process for FY 2015
  by Rosario G. Manasan

The bottom-up budgeting (BUB) process is one of the major reform initiatives of the Aquino administration, which is seen, among others, as a component of its budget reform thrusts that are aimed at making the national government budgeting process more responsive to local needs. This paper assesses the conduct of the FY 2015 round of the BUB in 12 municipalities in the provinces of Agusan del Norte, Camarines Sur, Negros Occidental, and Quezon. Specifically, it aims to (1) examine how the key steps in the planning and prioritization of projects under the BUB for the FY 2015 cycle are implemented on the ground in terms of extent of participation, LGU-CSO engagement, and integration of BUB process in local planning process; (2) report on the progress and identify bottlenecks in the implementation of subprojects identified during the FY 2013 BUB process; and (3) provide insights on areas for further improvement for the subsequent rounds. In this sense, this assessment focuses on the process rather than on the outcomes of the BUB. Click here for the full article

 

Exchange Rate

The average peso-dollar exchange rate slightly went up to 44.4457 in March, from 44.2214 in February. However, this figure is lower than that for the same period last year at 44.792.

Source: Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas

VIEW TABLE for time-series data on monthly average peso-dollar exchange rate.

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