OVERVIEW ON THE BENEFICIARIES, LAND COVERAGE AND

RETENTION LIMIT OF COMPREHENSIVE AGRARIAN REFORM

PROGRAM UNDER REPUBLIC ACT NO. 6657 OF 1998

A Research Paper for:

AGRARIAN LAW AND SOCIAL LEGISLATION

Atty. Abraham Johnny Asuncion

By Jenifer N. Umlano

Year 2021
I. Introduction

The Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) is a social

justice and poverty alleviation program which seeks to empower the lives

of agrarian reform beneficiaries (ARBs) through equitable distribution

and ownership of the land based on the principle of land to the tiller. It

likewise provides opportunities for a dignified and improved quality of

life of the ARBs through the provision of adequate support services for

sound rural development and the establishment of economic-size farms as

the basis of Philippine agriculture.

RA 6657 or the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Law (CARL) of

1988, is the basis for the implementation of CARP. This law embodies

the state policy of processing CARP aimed at liberating the vast potential

wealth of Philippine agriculture by giving the majority of the Filipinos

the real and rightful stake in the land.

The CARP envisions an equitable land ownership with empowered

agrarian reform beneficiaries who are effectively managing their

economic and social development for a better quality of life.

The Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) has a continuous

education and information campaign. For instance, the Agrarian Reform

(AR) Advocacy Program is conducted regularly in schools and

institutions who would like to be oriented on CARP. The Department

also farms out information kit, newsletters, brochures, primers and other

IEC materials for dissemination and distribution to the public. It also

accommodates walk-in researchers from different sectors. This policy

holds true to all DAR offices (local and national). The DAR also has its

own official website.

On June 26, 2020, the World Bank estimates that Around 750,000

people are expected to gain improved land tenure security and stable

property rights through a new project that will facilitate land titles for

over 1.3 million hectares of land that was granted as part of the

Philippines’ Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program.

The Philippines has an extensive history of inequitable land tenure.

Beginning with the Spanish colonial period from 1565-1898, large private

estates dominated the rural landscape. Farmers cultivated the land under

share-cropping arrangements, with neither freedom to choose the crops

they grew nor the option to own the land they tilled.

During the press released of World Bank it said that by 1980, 60

percent of the agricultural population was landless, many of them poor.

To rectify this pervasive land tenure inequality, the Congress passed the

agrarian reform law in 1988 and implemented the CARP to improve the

lives of small farmers by offering them land tenure security and support

services.
 Over the past three decades, CARP has distributed 4.8 million

hectares – 16 percent of the nation’s land – to almost three million

beneficiaries. However, only approximately 53 percent of lands

distributed was in the form of individual titles. Especially in the 1990s,

the government issued mostly collective land ownership awards to speed

up land distribution, with the intention of subdividing and titling them

individually at a future time.

The CARP consists of four main activities. The first set of CARP

activities involves the identification of privately-owned or publicly-

owned agricultural landholdings for CARP coverage. CARP has been

implemented on the assumption that landownership information can

readily be obtained from the land agencies such as the Land Registration

Authority (LRA), Land Management Bureau (LMB) and DENR.

However, because of the absence of good and complete parcel based land

information system in the country, the identification of land for CARP

coverage has become a tedious process. The activity requires DAR to

conduct research, ocular inspections, barangay mapping. The CARP

covers alienable and disposable (A&D) public lands intended for and

suited to agriculture, other government-owned lands devoted or suited to

agriculture, and private lands purposely for and suited to agriculture

According to various studies such as Adriano (2008), Ballesteros &

Tiamzon (2013) and De los Reyes (2016), the lack of a central database

on land and land ownership information has made the identification and

creation of the inventory of lands for CARP coverage difficult. Former

DAR Secretary Virgilio de los Reyes (2016) notes that the Land

Registration Authority (LRA) and the Registers of Deeds do not have

information on which titled properties are used for agricultural purposes.

He further points out that some old land laws have residual powers over

new ones.
II. Problem Statement

In the light of this study, it sought to answer the following questions:

1. Who may qualify under Comprehensive Agrarian Reform

Program?

2. What is the land coverage of Comprehensive Agrarian Reform

Program?

3. What is the allowed retention limit Comprehensive Agrarian

Reform Law?
III. Conceptual Framework

Figure 1. The paradigm of the study

Matters that qualify a

beneficiary of
Comprehensive
Agrarian Reform
Program

The allowed retention

Land coverage of limit
Comprehensive underComprehensive
Agrarian Reform Agrarian Reform
Program Program
 An Overview of Comprehensive Agrarian Reform

Program

The above presented variables are interconnected to the validation of the

outcome whereby an overview as set in this study includes the coverage of the

CARP program on beneficiaries, land and retention limit as allowed under the

law.

IV. Significance of the study

The research study is significant to the study of Comprehensive Agrarian

Reform Law. It presents an overview of the CARP as a program which

envisions an equitable ownership of land.

V. Methodology

The research was descriptive in nature, since it aims to identify and

describe the variables needed in the study. This study is primarily concerned

with finding out “what is”. Thus, it tries to present the different information

specifying the variables effectively. The study was a qualitative type of research

since it is more into understanding the coverage of the CARP program on

beneficiaries, land and retention limit

 VI. Scope and Delimitation

The study is limited to only an overview of the Comprehensive Agrarian

Reform Program in the Philippine, description of what it means, and

presentation of few facts for better understanding of the program.

VII. DATA ANALYSIS AND CONCLUSION

In this research, we discuss the following answers the research questions:

The beneficiaries must qualify as Agrarian Reform Beneficiaries (ARBs).

Under Section 22 of RA 6657, it states that qualified farmer beneficiaries are as

follows:

a. Agricultural lessees and share tenants;

b. Regular farmworkers;

c. Seasonal farmworkers;

d. Other farmworkers;

e. Actual tillers or occupants of public lands;

 f. Collective or cooperatives of the above beneficiaries; and

g. Others directly working on the land

However, if a person belongs to any of the primary qualifications above,

that beneficiary must be qualified in the following instances:

In Section 22 of RA 6657, the following can qualify:

1. Landless as defined in RA 6657. One is considered landless if

he/she owns less than 3 hectares of agricultural land;

2. Filipino citizen;

3. At least 15 years of age or head of the family at the time of

acquisition of property; and

4. Has willingness, ability and aptitude to cultivate and make the

land productive as possible.

The landownership of the beneficiary of CARP shall be evidenced by a

Certificate of Land Ownership Award (CLOA). The Certificate of

Landownership Award (CLOA) is a proof of ownership of the agrarian reform

beneficiary with respect to private agricultural land covered under RA

6657.Upon the approval and distribution of the EP/CLOA by the ROD it will be

distributed to the qualified beneficiaries. The certificate shall contain the

restrictions provided in RA 6657 and shall be recorded in the Registry of Deeds

(ROD) concerned and annotated on the certificate of title. A Certificate of Land

Transfer shall be issued in duplicate by the DAR for every land brought under

Operation Land Transfer. The original shall be kept by the beneficiary and the

duplicate in the Registry of Deeds. After the ARBs’s shall have fully complied

with the requirements for a grant of title under PD 27, an Emancipation Patent

(EP) shall be issued by DAR. The DAR shall prepare by automated data

processing a special registry book to be known as the “Provisional Register of

Documents issued under PD 27” which shall be kept and maintained in every

ROD throughout the country. An awarded CLOA/EP can be cancelled if the

beneficiary violates any of the following under Section 4, AO 6, Series of 2011:

i. The landholding involves the retention area of the

landowner;

ii. The landholding is exempted from coverage;

iii. Defective Notice of Coverage;

iv. The landholding is outside the authority of DAR to dispose

of;

v. Erroneous issued titles as a result of erroneous technical

description and cancellation of Los title prior to issuance of

the Certificate of Deposit

vi. Misuse or diversion of financial and support services

extended to the beneficiary;

 vii. Material misrepresentation of the beneficiary’s basic

qualifications under AR laws; Sale, transfer, lease, or other

forms of conveyance by the beneficiary of rights over the

land in circumvention of AR laws;

viii. Continued neglect or abandonment of the awarded land over

a period of 2 calendar years;

ix. Absolute and deliberate failure to pay an aggregate of 3

consecutive amortizations to the Land Bank

x. Conversion to non-agricultural use;

xi. Waiver of rights to awarded lands;

xii. Beneficiaries surrender of awarded land to LO or other non-

beneficiary

xiii. Misuse of the land;

xiv. Other acts or omissions that circumvent laws related to AR

implementation.

Pursuant to Section 15 of RA 6657; DAR AO 10 series of 1989 and AO

No. 7 series of 2003, the DAR in coordination with the Barangay Agrarian

Reform Community (BARC) registers all agricultural lessees, tenants and

farmworkers who are qualified to be beneficiaries of CARP. These potential

beneficiaries with the assistance of the BARC and the DAR shall provide the

following data:

a. Names and members of their immediate farm household;

b. Owners or administrators of the lands they work on and length

of tenurial

relationship;

c. Location and area of the land they work;

d. Crops planted; and

e. Share in the harvest or amount of rental paid or wages received

Pursuant to Section 7 in relation to Section 3 (e) of the Comprehensive

Agrarian Reform Law (CARL), idle and abandoned agricultural lands are

priority areas for coverage under CARP. Compulsory acquisition is a mode of

land acquisition whereby private agricultural lands are acquired by the

government in accordance with the procedure described in Section 16 of RA

6657.

All private agricultural lands (PAL) which has become due under the

phase of implementation as provided under Section 7 of RA 6657 are included

in compulsory acquisition. The private agricultural lands (PAL) are lands

already titled in the name of private individuals. These also include agricultural

lands which have a Torrens title, free-patent titles and those with homestead

patents. If at the advent of CARP said lands are already agriculturally developed

and productive,

they are not exempted from CARP. However, for those lands which are above

18% slope, they are exempted from CARP coverage as provided for in Sec. 10

of RA 6657.

Moreover, as to allowed retention limit under CARP, a landowners’

retention limit shall not exceed 5 hectares under Sec. 6 of RA 6657. Three (3)

hectares may be awarded to a child of the landowner subject to the following

qualifications:

1. at least 15 years of age during the CARP coverage; and

2. actually tilling the land or directly managing the farm

For married couples, the extent of land ownership would depend by the

nature of their property relations. If the marriage was solemnized before 3

August 1988 then it is governed by the Civil Code in which case, in the absence

of an agreement for the separation of the property, spouses may retain a total of

not more than 5 hectares of agricultural lands from their conjugal properties.

However, if either or both of them are landowners in their own respective

rights, they may retain not more than 5 hectares each from their respective
landholdings. On the other hand, if the marriage was contracted under the new

Family Code, they may retain 5 hectares each if they executed a judicial

separation of properties prior to the marriage. In the absence thereof, only a

total of 5 hectares can be retained.

VIII. References

Adriano, Lourdes (1991). A General Assessment of the

Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program. PIDS Working Paper Series 91-
13. Manila: PIDS

AO 10 series of 1989 and AO No. 7 series of 2003, Department of

Agrarian Reform

Ballesteros, M. (2010). The Cost of Redistributive Land Reform in the

Philippines: Assessment of PD 27 and RA 6657 (CARL). PIDS Discussion
Paper Series No. 2010-09. Makati City: Philippine Institute for Development
Studies.
 CARP Briefings’ Consolidated FAQs produced by Bureau of Agrarian
Reform Information and Education and DAR, Quezon City Philippines

Republic Act No. 6657 known as Comprehensive Agrarian Reform

Law: signed June 10, 1988

World Bank; PHILIPPINES: New Project to Help Provide Individual

Land Titles to 750,000 Agrarian Reform Beneficiaries, On June 26, 2020