The Commission on Human Rights (CHR) supports policies and programs that alleviate the quality of life and welfare of our agricultural workers, especially in relation with their long-held demand to secure land ownership of the farms they have been tilling for years.

The Philippine government, through the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR), pushes for the improved land tenure security and stable property rights of around 1 million agrarian reform beneficiaries (ARBs) nationwide.

This renewed commitment to ensure land ownership of ARBs is laid out in DAR’s ‘Support to Parcelization of Lands for Individual Titling’ or SPLIT program. It aims is to expedite the parcelization of more than 1.3 million hectares covered by the collective Certificates of Land Ownership Awards (CLOAs), as part of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP).

Likewise, we also acknowledge DAR’s move to look into instances where land titles were not distributed to farmers despite already being awarded with lands and collective CLOAs under CARP, such as in the case involving DAR-Cebu.

Throughout our history, the Philippines has an extensive record of inequitable land tenure which drives farmers and other agricultural workers at the bottom of rural development. Agrarian reform has been a long struggle in the country and several programs have been launched to attempt to address land monopoly and unfair landlord-tenant relationship. However, previous efforts of the government focused more on the issuance of collective land ownership to hasten the process, with the intention of subdividing and titling them individually at a future time.

Apart from the economic benefits of land distribution, the CHR stresses that land rights, particularly in developing countries such as the Philippines, are inextricably linked with the right to food, the right to work, and a host of other human rights. In many instances, the right to land is bound up with a community’s identity, its livelihood, and, thus, its very survival.

The Commission hopes that DAR will continue to speed up the distribution of land and provide necessary support services to farmers, especially during this time of pandemic. The CHR also reminds the government to employ human rights-based approach in tackling the issues of land rights to ensure participative engagement in this highly political process. ###