PubMed1988
This Act institutes the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP). CARP takes as its declared aim "the establishment of owner cultivatorship of economic-size farms as the basis of Philippine agriculture" (Section 2). It prohibits the retention by landowners of more than five hectares of land and, for each child of the landowner over 15 years old, an additional three hectares, providing he or she is personally cultivating that land (Section 6). That limit of three hectares is also the upper limit for the redistribution of land to "qualified beneficiaries." These may be agricultural lessees and share tenants, regular, seasonal, or other farm workers, actual tillers or occupants of public lands, or some others directly working on the land (Section 22). Where splitting up of the land is economically inappropriate, then it may be taken over by collectives or cooperatives of these categories of agricultural workers (Sections 25 and 29). The land reforms envisaged under CARP are scheduled to take place in three phases over a 10-year period. Land in the public domain held or leased by multinational corporations is scheduled for expropriation within three years of the passing of the Act (Section 8); land otherwise controlled to be redistributed during the first phase is generally scheduled for redistribution in order of the size of the landholdings: that is, the larger the holding, the earlier it is scheduled for redistribution. Land acquisition is to be carried out by means of the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) and the Land Bank of the Philippines (LBP). The level of compensation payable to the expropriated landowner is to be determined by the DAR, the LBP, and the landowner, according to the cost of acquisition and development of the land, current market values, the income it generates in the light of the sworn valuation of the owner, and any tax returns pertaining to it. If the landowner disagrees with the level of compensation offered, there is a right of appeal to the courts. Payment of compensation, carried out through the medium of the LBP, is to be partly in cash and partly in government bonds, or in credits for taxes or other government funded services such as education and hospitalization. For land in excess of 50 hectares, the proportion payable in cash is 25% and for land below 24 hectares in area, 35%. These amounts may be increased by 5% in cases where the landowner voluntarily puts the land forward for transfer under the Program.