Performance in land tenure improvement (LTI) took an uncertain turn due to the national government's successive budget reenactments and the lapse of the appropriation cover provided under RA 8532 or the "Act Strengthening Further the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) Law of 1988." The declaration of over one million hectares of the land acquisition and distribution (LAD) balance provided policy shifts in the CARP implementation for the next five years. With the signing of the CARP Extension with Reforms (CARPer) Law in 2009, an additional PhP150 billion has been appropriated for the completion of CARPer's LAD balance of 1,034,661 hectares net of retention16 to be distributed in five years starting from July 2009. At least 40 percent of the said amount has been set aside for the delivery of support services to the beneficiaries. The CARPer Law also stipulates that support services, agrarian justice delivery, and operational requirements of CARP implementing agencies (CIAs) shall be continued even after completion of the LAD component of the CARP.
From 2004 to 2008, the Department of Agrarian Reform's (DAR) average annual LAD accomplishment rate hit 102 percent against its funded target. In 2009, only 69 percent of the reduced annual LAD target of 85,764 hectares was accomplished.
Operational bottlenecks were encountered, including longer processing due to compliance with the new acquisition requirements imposed under CARPer. Such requirements include landowners' attestation, Barangay Agrarian Reform Committee (BARC) certification, and oath-taking before the City/Municipal Court Judge. The need to intensify the synergy among CIAs in delivering land distribution commitments continues to be an issue.
Related to LAD is the delivery of agrarian justice, which involves the adjudication of agrarian cases and representation of Agrarian Reform Beneficiaries (ARBs) before quasi-judicial bodies and regular courts. The performance of DAR's delivery of agrarian justice during the past years has been commendable in terms of solving cases on coverage, land use conversions, land exemptions or exclusions, installation of ARBs to awarded lands, and provision of legal assistance to ARBs despite some challenges, such as lack of personnel, resolution of backlog cases, and budgetary constraints.
Studies have confirmed that ARBs are more productive and better off than non-ARBs.17 Agrarian reform communities (ARCs), when properly established and supported, improved their economic conditions, social capital, civic entrepreneurship and democratic participation. Furthermore, the study of Habito, et. al. (2010)18 confirmed that consolidation of output does not require consolidation of ownership in order to realize economic gains from processing or marketing. Institutional arrangements through tie-ups with collective organizations of farmer-beneficiaries are viable alternatives.
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16 PARC Executive Committee Resolution No. SP-2010-04, establishing and firming up the CARPER gross land acquisition and distribute balance at 1,281,033 hectares of which 1,034,661 is estimated to be net of retention
17 These include the CARP-Impact Assessment Study (Phase I) conducted in 2000, a re-validation of the said study under CARP-Impact Assessment Study (Phase II), the DAR-German Technical Cooperation (GTZ) Study on Post-LAD Scenarios in 2006, the Asset Reform CARD Study by Dr. Cielito Habito in 2008, and the CIRDAP study on Access to Land and Rural Development in the Philippines
18 A Comprehensive Study on the Appropriate Economically Viable Land Size by Type of Crop Category Under Varying Bio-Climatic Zones and Technological Conditions," led by Dr. Cielito Habito.