“Rebranding Paralegal Empowerment for Agrarian Reform and Rural Development”

1st Paralegal Training for Women and Youth, July 5-7, 2023, Acacia Hotel, Bacolod City

Context:

For farmers to gain access to justice in agrarian reform by securing their land tenure, they need to know its
policies, processes, and strategies to achieve this. KAISAHAN has been facilitating the formation of paralegals,
particularly in Leyte and Negros Occidental in the past decade, to assist farmers communities in claiming these
land rights. With the two provinces still with high LAD balances, more paralegals need to be trained. However,
seasoned agrarian reform paralegals are ageing or have died, like many ARBs who have not yet claimed their
titles.

Women and young farmers are emerging as a potential sector for paralegal formation as prospective inheritors
of the CARP land albeit with the issues accompanying the claim. In developing women and rural youth
paralegals, KAISAHAN aims to capacitate members of the sector that are often taken for granted and least
prioritized. In focusing on them as community leaders and paralegals, their talents, potentials and skills are
maximized to continue defending their family’s land legacy and progress towards attaining tenurial security for
future generations.

Training and conferring with paralegals and meeting farmer leaders during the pandemic were done using online
platforms and tools, which proved challenging. But it also introduced KAISAHAN to new ways of reaching out to
a new generation of younger farmer paralegals. Women were also active on online platforms.

KAISAHAN realized that it needs to adapt the delivery of its paralegal training to the new normal of online
learning and through bite-sized information and popular visual formats to be appreciated by a younger
generation and a wider public. But the form should not compromise the substance of the content in imparting
knowledge about land rights and legal processes.

Rebrand PARRD is a GoJust project which aims to assist around 2,000 farmer beneficiaries with their land rights
claims by developing women and successor generation paralegals through "rebranded” or repackaged legal
empowerment approach. It also aims to promote a more truthful narrative on farmers and agrarian reform to
battle disinformation against them and their land rights struggles.

A repackaging of learning materials for paralegals and content rebranding on ARRD for sharing on social media
and other platforms will be done to make land rights policies and procedures, even paralegal skills and
experiences, more understandable and relatable to the wider public.

For a more effective transfer of knowledge and skills to a new generation of paralegals, a rebranding of modules
will take into account the perspective women and youth and find more popular ways in presenting basic laws,
policies, processes and other legal information. The local languages will be considered for these materials and
possibly in infographic or video formats. The rebranded or repackaged paralegal modules should be material
that can be shared and appreciated by a wider public and through new media.
“Rebranding Paralegal Empowerment for Agrarian Reform and Rural Development”
1st Paralegal Training for Women and Youth, July 5-7, 2023, Acacia Hotel, Bacolod City

Overall Course Objectives:

The 1st Women and Youth Paralegal Training (PLT) will provide an overview on:

1. General Principles and Policies that promote basic Human Rights (including Women and Youth rights)
2. People’s Participation in governance
3. Laws and procedures on agrarian reform
4. Gender in ARRD implementation, succession, and parcelization under the DAR SPLIT program, Agricultural
Ventures Agreements (AVAs)
5. Paralegalism and Metalegal Tactics
6. Basic Community Organizing

DAY 1: July 5, 2023 PAKSA (TOPIC) Tagapagsalita

9:30 – 10am Panalangin at Pambansang Awit Mga Kalahok
Pambungad na Bati at Pagpapaliwanag tungkol sa Maricel A. Tolentino at Gil
Pagsasanay Portillo, KAISAHAN
Introduction – Name and area; Group assignments
Expectations check
10am – 12:00nn 1.1 Basic Human Rights Principles (emphasis on Women and Atty. Mary Claire Demaisip,
Youth Rights) KAISAHAN QC

12:00 – 1:30pm Check-in and Lunch Break

1:30 – 3:00pm 1.2 Law and the Philippine Legal System Atty. Mary Claire Demaisip,
KAISAHAN QC
3:00 – 4:30pm 1.3 Participatory Local Governance Mechanisms (esp. for Maricel A. Tolentino,
Women and Youth) KAISAHAN QC
4:30 – 6:00pm 1.4 Relation of Land and Natural Resources to Community Gil Portillo, KAISAHAN
Sustainability Negros

DAY 2: July 6, 2023 PAKSA (TOPIC) Tagapagsalita

8:30 - 10am 2.1 Concept of Agrarian Reform and Agrarian Laws (RA 6657 Jared Mark Lagahit,
as amended by 9700) KAISAHAN Negros
10am – 12nn 2.2 Land Acquisition and Distribution Process Mario and Jared Mark
Lagahit, KAISAHAN Negros
and AGREED Paralegals
12:00 – 1:00pm Lunch Break
1:00 – 2:30pm 2.3 Women, Youth and Land Rights Atty. Mary Claire Demaisip
and Maricel A. Tolentino
2:30 – 4:00pm 2.4 Support to the Parcelization of Lands for Individual Atty. Mary Claire Demaisip
Titling (SPLIT) Program
4:00 – 5:30pm 2.5 Agricultural Ventures Agreements Atty. Mary Claire Demaisip
and AGREED Paralegals

DAY 3: July 7, 2023 PAKSA (TOPIC) Tagapagsalita

8:30 – 10:30am 3.1 Paralegalism & Metalegal Tactics Gil Portillo, Leomar
Magbato, KAISAHAN Negros
“Rebranding Paralegal Empowerment for Agrarian Reform and Rural Development”
1st Paralegal Training for Women and Youth, July 5-7, 2023, Acacia Hotel, Bacolod City
10:30am – 3.2 Basic Community Organizing Principles and Steps on Anthony Marzan, KAISAHAN
12:30pm Organizing QC
12:30 – 1:30pm Lunch Break
1:30 – 3:00pm 3.3 Women and Youth Paralegal Planning Jared Mark Lagahit and
Jannele Jimenez
3:00 – 3:30pm Closing