Extent of Implementation of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program

Comparing Laos agrarian reform to Philippines agrarian reform Laos Laos is a communist state and all lands belong to the nation as a whole and managed by the government. Beginning in the 1990s, Lao PDR began to formalize individual land-use rights and strengthen tenure security through land titling and land allocation programs. A land title is evidence of permanent land-use rights, which can be bought and sold, mortgaged or bequeathed (Lastarria-Cornhiel 2007). In rural areas, the state distributed temporary land-use certificates (TLUCs) for agricultural and forest land. TLUCs are valid for three years, and the use rights evidenced by a TLUC can be bequeathed and inherited but cannot be sold, leased or used as collateral. Rural families may also request a Land Survey Certificate (LSC) to prove permanent land-use rights. Rights evidenced by LSCs can be bought, sold, mortgaged and bequeathed (GTZ 2009). Local authorities may also issue a Land Tax Declaration or a Land Tax Receipt. In rural areas, land users sometimes use these documents as proof of land-use rights or to assert compensation claims when land concessions occur. However, these documents cannot be used to transfer land rights (GTZ 2009). Communal tenure, under which local communities control common property such as upland areas, grazing land, village-use forests and sacred forests, is prevalent in rural areas, although the state does not yet formally recognize such tenure. Rural families may also hold informal rights to agricultural land allocated by traditional authorities under informal or customary rules. A Land Tax Declaration, issued by the District Land Tax Division, allows the holder to use the land, and may be used to record transfer of the right by inheritance. Local authorities also issue Land Tax Receipts for tax payments. Although Land Tax Receipts are not transferable by law, villagers do use them as evidence of their rights, including for the purpose of selling or leasing out the land. Most rural land users have at least a Land Tax Receipt showing that they have paid tax on the land they claim. Citizens can use Land Tax Declarations and Receipts as evidence of land use when applying for an LSC (GTZ 2009; Ngaosrivathana and Rock 2007). Under the 2003 Land Law, the state may only expropriate land for public interest use or public purposes. Compensation must be paid prior to commencement of project construction and may include voluntary contribution, an exchange for another piece of land and/or cash payments. The criteria establishing who is eligible for compensation are unclear; some decrees include all affected persons, while others require compensation only for those with land-use rights (GOL Land Law 2003b; Ngaosrivathana and Rock 2007). Philippines

Land distribution is skewed. In the rural sector, there are an estimated 2.9 million small farms that average 2 hectares and 13,681 large private landholdings of up to 20,000 hectares. There are 10.2 million marginal farmers and farm workers, 70% of whom are landless. Since the 1930s, the State has instituted various land reforms, the latest of which is the 1988 Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Law. While considerable swaths of land have been redistributed, the most contentious private agricultural lands, which are also the most productive and fertile, remain with wealthy private landowners (FAO 1997; Borras and Franco 2007). In the Philippines, lands are either public domain (State-owned) or privately owned. Under the 1987 Constitution, only public agricultural lands may be leased up to 1000 hectares to private corporations, and leased up to 500 hectares or acquired by purchase, homestead or grant of up to 12 hectares by individual citizens (GOP Constitution 1987a, Art. 12, Sec. 3). The major land reform laws are the 1988 Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Law (CARL) and the 1992 Urban Development and Housing Act (UDHA). The CARL broadened the scope of rural land reform by including private and public agricultural lands regardless of crops and tenure arrangements, and providing for support services to agrarian reform beneficiaries, including infrastructure, capability-building and credit/marketing assistance. Lands were to be distributed to landless farmers and farm workers within a period of 10 years, but when this was not achieved, the law was extended for another 10 years, and then again extended until 2014. The CARL provides retention limit on ownership by a landowner which shall not exceed five (5) hectares. Three (3) hectares may be awarded to each child of the
landowner, subject to the following qualifications: (1) that he is at least fifteen (15) years of age; and (2) that he is actually tilling the land or directly managing the farm. The

lands that will be taken are also subject to fair market value. There are still lands that are exempt from the agrarian reform these are lands
actually, directly and exclusively used and found to be necessary for parks, wildlife, forest reserves, reforestation, fish sanctuaries and breeding grounds, watersheds, and mangroves, national defense, school sites and campuses including experimental farm stations operated by public or private schools for educational purposes, seeds and seedlings research and pilot production centers, church sites and convents appurtenant thereto, mosque sites and Islamic centers appurtenant thereto, communal burial grounds and cemeteries, penal colonies and penal farms actually worked by the inmates, government and private research and quarantine centers and all lands with eighteen percent (18%) slope and over, except those already developed shall be exempt.

Conclusion The Philippines has a better legal system that will aid the farmers in alleviating

Source: USAID. 2013. Land Tenure Profile Laos. Available at <http://usaidlandtenure.net/sites/default/files/country-profiles/fullreports/USAID_Land_Tenure_Laos_Profile.pdf> Accessed August 18, 2013 USAID. 2011. Land Tenure Profile Philippines. Available at <http://usaidlandtenure.net/sites/default/files/country-profiles/fullreports/USAID_Land_Tenure_Philippines_Profile.pdf> Accessed August 18, 2013 R.A 6657 Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Law