Community Empowerment Facility Profile

BACKGROUND

The Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program ( CARP ) fell 50% short of its target in the land distribution process due to lack of political will, limited budgetary allocation for agrarian reform, strong resistance of landowners, disorganized farmer-beneficiaries and unfavourable agrarian-reform related policies.

The government has to be pressured by civil society forces so it will exert more vigorous efforts in land distribution and in enacting favourable policies. To be effective however, the pressure/campaign exerted by organized farmer beneficiaries must be highlighted in the media and supported by a wider public. Government policies and programs must respond to the realities experienced on the ground.

The project area of interventions is focused in five provinces: Quezon, Camarines SurRizal, Bukidnon and Negros Occidental.

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GOAL AND OBJECTIVES

The project's principal objectives are: To facilitate the distribution of at least  8149 hectares of land to about 5179 landless farmers and farm workers in 13 estates/landholdings covered under the CARP programme; to strengthen the capacity of at least 13  landless farmers' organizations (at the barangay and municipal levels)  in:

• claim-making and critical engagement of government agencies;
• management of  the internal affairs and development of their own organizations;
• mobilizing media and the larger public to support their issues; to document and publish the campaign efforts of these farmer organizations so others may learn from their experiences;  and,
• advocacy groups may have bases for their policy recommendations and proposals.

MAJOR ACTIVITIES

Land Tenure Improvement (LTI) Campaign: Landless farmers and farm workers conduct different forms of community actions to pressure government to act on their cases as their claim folder moves from one stage to the next until the process culminates in the awarding of their Certificates of Land Ownership Awards (CLOAS) and their installation in the land.

LTI facilitators and farmer LTI technicians mainly catalyze and facilitate the local actions. The LTI facilitators regularly hold strategy/tactic and action-reflection-action sessions with the farmer LTI technicians.  

Legal assistance is likewise provided to the farmers through sessions with agrarian lawyers, and facilitation or formulation of necessary legal papers - like petitions, motions for consideration, etc.

Education and Training of Farmers: Session guides and instructional materials are developed on the following topics: basics of The Philippine agrarian reform program, strategy and tactics on direct action using the active non-violence framework; peasants' rights, conflict management; organizational management; value formation; action-reflection-action.

Learning Sessions: conducted mostly at the field level, either at the barangay or municipal levels. However, a mid-year and year-end conference, attended by farmer-leaders, is conducted to assess the project, theorize based on experience and learn from each other's experiences. One of the major training strategies to be employed is "Learn-by doing".

Documentation Research: Case documentation is conducted on a systematic and regular basis. At least two case studies per area are produced.  Strategy/tactic sessions, as well as the action-reflection-action sessions are documented; as lessons shared from these sessions can be integrated into the instructional materials to be used in the various Learning Sessions.

Public Education: Tri-media Advocacy - A media specialist is tasked to continually relate with the tri-media (TV, radio, print) to bring out the stories of the farm workers' struggles. Farmer LTI technicians and PO leaders are trained to relate with media persons and handle media relations, both at the local and national levels.

On-line advocacy: The struggles and victories of the farmers are featured in the Anihan, a website on agrarian reform and rural development hosted by AR Now! 

School/church hopping: Farmer leaders are encouraged to visit schools and churches in their localities to get support to their plight. They are trained to speak before a larger public.   Information materials will be produced.

The project is implemented by the People's Campaign for Agrarian Reform Network (AR Now!), in close coordination with PAKISAMA (this organization direct organizing and mobilizing work in the provinces), SALIGAN, ICSI, PhilDHRRA, PASCRES, PDAP and ANGOC, who are organizational members of AR Now!

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CONCLUSION

After a year of project operations, many of the target outputs were delivered:

Movement of claim folders: Most of the claim folders of the Land Tenure Improvement (LTI) cases handled progressed at least one step forward; although not one LTI case was able to complete the process, until the generation and installation of CLOA (Certificates of Land Ownership Awards) was completed. The biggest movement so far was in Carlos estate, where the MAPALAD farmers were able to occupy 47 hectares of land.

Case documentation written: All LTI cases assisted were documented and regularly updated. Only two cases reported had no documentation because in the middle of implementation these LTI targets were dropped.

Training activities on organizing and campaign management conducted: through the paralegal clinics, tactic sessions, action-reflection-action after each campaign activity and organizational meetings, farmer leaders and members increased their knowledge about their rights, about the processes in agrarian reform implementation, about their own ca pa cities, weaknesses and limitations.

Functional organizational systems and structures set up by FBs: Because of the financial assistance given to SAMBA, PATANOM, PALAMBU, and UGMA, they became visible as advocates for LTI issues and were perceived to be more responsive to their members. The project also provides opportunities for them to expand their areas of operation, to reach out to potential members.

The management of the provincial structures: SAMBA, PATANOM, PALAMBU and UGMA were strengthened since they were able to hold regular meetings where they thrashed out problems communicate more often and exchange ideas. The systems and structures at the base level were set up as a result of the campaign activities.

Involvement of the various sectors at the local and national levels: The project was able to draw in the support of the media, some sectors in the church, and some students to the capacity-building activities of the farmers groups.

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