Hacienda Luisita. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO
Agrarian reform
By Kate Pedroso, Inquirer Research
President Benigno Aquino III has promised to complete the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP), the centerpiece program of his mother’s administration, before he steps down in 2016. The President has been accused by militants of shielding his family’s Hacienda Luisita from the implementation of agrarian reform.
As a presidential candidate in May 2010 elections, Mr. Aquino vowed to redistribute the family-owned hacienda in accordance with the law enacted in June 2009 extending CARP for five more years.
Apart from Hacienda Luisita, he pledged to complete the distribution of privately owned lands comprising some of the most productive agricultural estates that have so far escaped coverage of the program promulgated by his mother, the late President Corazon Aquino.
Months after assuming office, Mr. Aquino said he had “adopted a hands-off policy” on the Hacienda Luisita dispute, saying he had divested himself of his interests in the sugar plantation.
In November 2011, the Supreme Court, voting 14-0, ordered the distribution of the hacienda. In April 2012, the Supreme Court rejected with finality a bid by the family of President Aquino to secure at least P5 billion in compensation for the hacienda, affirming the November ruling basing the value of the sugar plantation in 1989 at around P196 million.
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Promise: Complete CARP by 2016: “My mother initiated the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program. It is only just that this program sees its conclusion during my term.” (Sona 2012)
As of June 2014, 466,164 hectares had been distributed by the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR), while 351,886 ha had been distributed by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR).
As of June 2014, the total CARP balance was 835,228 ha—716,520 for the DAR and 118,768 for the DENR.
The DAR aims to distribute 198,631 ha this year, and the remaining 385,748 ha next year. The DENR plans to complete the distribution of 118,768 ha this year.
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Promise: Turn over Hacienda Luisita lots beginning September 2013 (Sona 2013)
In September 2013, the DAR announced that it would finally begin distributing land titles to more than 6,000 farmworkers of Hacienda Luisita.
As of June 2014, 5,982 farmworkers (out of 6,212) had received their certificate of land ownership awards.
But some farmworkers have been disqualified as land reform beneficiaries, among them leaders of the group that filed the landmark case that led to the distribution of Hacienda Luisita. The DAR said the 125 farmworkers were disqualified for their failure to sign and swear to the required application to purchase and farmer’s undertaking (Apfu), a document containing a list of the obligations of beneficiaries, including paying amortization, under the law.
Some beneficiaries have also reportedly started selling their 6,600-square-meter lots to an Isabela-based Chinese-Filipino businessman. Under the law, the sale of land covered by CARP is prohibited for 10 years after the land has been distributed.
Last month, reports said the President’s family had ceded the Luisita sugar mill Central Azucarera de Tarlac to a new company owned mainly by the family of Cito Lorenzo, who served as agriculture secretary in the Arroyo administration. The move has led to mass layoffs and temporary closure of the mill.
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Promise: Serve all notices of coverage (NOCs) for land covered by agrarian reform “in the next year.” (Sona 2013)
As of June 2014, the DAR had issued NOCs for 27,756 landholdings (227,382 ha), while 3,898 landholdings (35,021 ha), out of more than 60,000 landholdings subject to compulsory acquisition, were not issued NOCs due to problems with land records, among others things.
The President certified urgent the NOC Extension Bill, which proposes to extend the issuance of NOCs, receipt of voluntary offers to sell and initiation of petitions for coverage beyond the June 30, 2014, deadline of the extended CARP law.
But the bill that would extend CARP are still pending in Congress, where it is reportedly being blocked by wealthy landed lawmakers. Last month, the Negros-based farmers’ group Task Force Mapalad filed a complaint against Negros Occidental Rep. Alfredo “Albee” Bantug Benitez, accusing him of using his influence over the Visayas bloc of lawmakers to keep vast farmlands under his family’s control outside the coverage of CARP. Source: Sona 2014 Technical Report, Inquirer Archives, dar.gov.ph
INQUIRER FILE PHOTO
Education and health
By Almi Ilagan-Atienza , Inquirer Research
PROMISE: A “globally competitive basic education cycle” expanded from 10 years to the global standard of 12 years. (Sona 2010)
The new K to 12 (Kindergarten to Grade 12) curriculum had been implemented as of February 2014, and the first batch of high school students to go through it will graduate in March 2018. The program has been met not just with protests. There are at least five petitions in the Supreme Court against the K to 12 Law, or Republic Act No. 10533.
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Promise: End the backlog in education: 66,800 classrooms, 2,573,212 chairs, and 61.7 million textbooks to achieve the one-to-one ratio of books and students. (Sona 2010 and 2012)
The Department of Education (DepEd) reported that it had constructed 86,478 classrooms as of February 2015, enough to fill the backlog of 66,800 classrooms in 2010. The DepEd also reported 1:1 student-textbook and student-school seat ratios since December 2012. Even as it copes with the annual increase in enrollment, the regular wear and tear of school equipment and resources, and the effects of natural disasters, the DepEd faces the prospect of more shortages as the K to 12 program introduces two additional years of senior high school.
In its latest report to Congress, the DepEd states that every additional year in the basic education system requires 20,000 to 28,000 public classrooms, which translates to a 40,000 to 56,000 additional classroom shortage for the two-year senior high school program. As a result, the official classroom shortage, to include the requirements for the K to 12 program, will reach more than 95,000.
The DepEd says an additional 60,000 to 82,000 teachers will be needed to implement the senior high school program. The K to 12 program also requires the printing of a minimum of 60 million textbooks since the textbooks designed for the old 10-year curriculum will now be obsolete.
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Promise: Increase the budget of state universities and colleges (SUCs) to P43.61 billion in 2013. (Sona 2012)
The budget for SUCs was increased from P23.8 billion in 2012 to P34.9 million in 2013. Although it has been increasing year-on-year, from P23.8 billion in 2010 to P43.3 billion in 2015, the SUC budget has still not reached the P43.61 billion that was promised two years ago.
The 2015 allocation included P3.5 billion for scholarships under SUCs, P2.2 billion for Commission on Higher Education scholarships and P316 million research fund.
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Promise: Expand PhilHealth coverage by identifying the correct number of Filipinos in urgent need of PhilHealth coverage. Continue to implement the Department of Social Welfare and Development’s national household targeting system for poverty reduction, or Listahanan. (Sona 2010)
Prompted by recent typhoons, floods and other natural disasters that left many families poor, homeless and jobless in various parts of the country, the Listahanan survey is currently being conducted for the second time, with a target of 15.3 million households. The survey, aimed at building an information management system that will pinpoint who and where the poor families are, will serve as the basis for identifying the beneficiaries of social protection programs.
In December 2014, a Commission on Audit (COA) report said the DSWD handed out more than P1 billion to about 364,000 families whose names were “missing” from the Listahanan database. There were also double payments to people whose names appeared on the list twice. The COA said P168.122 million was also given to 21,117 “nonpoor beneficiaries.”
The DSWD claimed that the problem involved only the documentation process and that the COA did not see any suspicions of misuse or misappropriation of the funds.
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Promise: Pass two health-related bills: the sin tax bill aimed at raising more revenues to fund universal healthcare, and the reproductive health (RH) bill to help address potential education backlogs because of the continuing increase in the student population. (Sona 2012)
The Sin Tax Reform Law was signed in December 2012 and came into effect in January 2013. In the first two years of its implementation, the sin tax has generated an additional P102 billion—of which 18 percent came from taxes levied on tobacco products—to finance universal healthcare and health infrastructure programs, according to the Department of Finance.
The share of total tobacco and alcohol excise tax collections amounted to 0.9 percent of gross domestic product for 2013 and 2014, reportedly the highest since 2000. Funding for the Department of Health increased to P83.7 billion in 2014 (from P53.3 billion in 2013), and P87 billion in 2015.
The budget allocation for health insurance premiums for the poor increased from P12.6 billion in 2013 to P35.3 billion in 2014. Of the total registered PhilHealth members in 2014, 40.4 percent were from the indigent sector, against the 16.5 percent in 2013.
Also signed in December 2012, the Responsible Parenthood and Reproductive Health Act was stopped from being implemented by a Supreme Court’s status quo ante order just two months after it became effective on Jan. 17, 2013.
In July 2014, the high court unanimously declared the law “not unconstitutional,” but upheld its April 8 ruling that rejected eight of the law’s provisions. The provisions include those pertaining to providing minors access to contraceptives without parental consent; penalizing health-care providers for refusing or failing to disseminate information about RH programs; requiring parental consent for a minor in nonemergency situations; and penalizing public officers who refuse to support RH programs.
In a resolution issued on June 17, the high tribunal stopped the government from “procuring, selling, distributing, dispensing and administering, advertising and promoting” contraceptive implants, pending the high court’s final disposition of an appeal to permanently ban the product for its alleged “abortifacient” side effects. Sources: Inquirer archives, DBM and DepEd websites, Official Gazette website
España Boulevard in Manila during the onslaught of Tropical Storm “Mario” in September 2014. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO
Metro Manila flooding
By Rafael L. Antonio, Inquirer Research
CITING the onslaught of Tropical Storm “Ondoy” in 2009 that heavily flooded Metro Manila and nearby provinces, President Aquino in his 2013 State of the Nation Address (Sona) promised to allocate P6.2 billion for flood-control projects in the metropolis.
The centerpiece project was the P560-million Blumentritt Interceptor Catchment, which could contain water equivalent to the contents of “14 Olympic-size swimming pools.”
According to the Flood Control and Sewerage Management Office of the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA), the rate of subsidence of floodwater in Metro Manila during the first quarter of 2015 is 30 minutes to 1.5 hours after heavy rain.
Below is the President’s flood control program and corresponding developments.
Promise: Remedying the problem of flooding in Metro Manila (Sona 2013)
In the 2015 national budget, the government allocated P47.3 billion for flood-control and drainage projects across the country through the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH); P7.02 billion to improve carbon sequestration and flood reduction through the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR); and P276.9 million for flood control and sewerage management program through the MMDA.
In 2014, the MMDA began upgrading and rehabilitating 12 old pumping stations in Metro Manila. The project was completed in the second quarter of 2015.
In 2015, the DPWH allocated more than P8.48 billion for 360 projects in flood-prone areas in Metro Manila. Quezon City got the biggest funding, P1.47 billion, followed by Manila with P1.21 billion.
According to its first quarter 2015 accomplishment report, the MMDA cleared 106,422 meters of drainage laterals, dredged and deepened 14,101 m of open waterways and desilted 3,350 m of drainage mains. But it fell short of the target outputs of 124,490 m, 20,411 m and 3,883 m for the three jobs for the period.
On its operations and maintenance of 54 pumping stations in Metro Manila, the MMDA pumped out 6.582 cubic meters of floodwater and collected 2,343 cu m of garbage during the first quarter. But it failed to meet the target outputs of 11.777 cu m and 13,200 cu m for the two jobs for the period.
The MMDA fabricated and installed 87 manhole covers and 60 steel gratings in the previous quarter, up from 42 manhole covers and 18 steel gratings installed during the same period in 2014.
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Promise: Relocation of informal settlers (Sona 2013)
As of October 2014, the Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council provided 222,789 housing units to low-income families, or 63 percent more than its target of 136,859 for 2014.
Also as of October 2014, the National Housing Authority provided 40,052 permanent housing units and 143,076 housing materials as assistance to calamity victims in 2011-2014. During that period, 1.59 million houses were either totally or partially destroyed by typhoons.
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Promise: Filing of cases against people who closed or obstructed waterways (Sona 2013)
In June, the MMDA warned that people caught dumping used grease and oil—which when hardened could clog drainage systems—into the drainage would be fined P2,000 to P5,000 or their business permits may be revoked.
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Promise: Construction of the Blumentritt Interceptor Catchment (Sona 2013)
According to the DPWH-NCR Maintenance Office, the construction is 80-percent complete as of July. Phases 1 (Laong Laan Street to the area between Dapitan and Piy Margal streets), 4 (M. Natividad Street-Aurora Avenue to Manila North Cemetery) and 5 (Blumentritt Avenue-Calamba Street to Laong Laan) are 100-percent complete, while Phases 2 (Manila North Cemetery on Calavite Street) and 3 (Javier Street to M. Natividad Street-Aurora Avenue) are 94- and 60-percent complete, respectively.
The P560-million project, which started in July 2013, was supposed to be finished in 300 days. It is 3.3 kilometers long, 6-m wide and 3-m deep.
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Promise: Priority to relocate more than 19,400 families living along major waterways in Metro Manila (Sona 2013)
As of July 2014, 25,000 informal settler families (ISFs) had been relocated to nearby provinces under the Oplan Likas (Lumikas para Iwas Kalamidad at Sakit) of the Department of the Interior and Local Government.
As of October 2014, 52,391 housing units were completed. It was part of the P50-billion five-year housing program for 104,219 ISFs living near danger zones and major waterways that began in 2011.
Sources: Official Gazette, Metropolitan Manila Development Authority, Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council, Department of Public Works and Highways, Department of the Interior and Local Government, and Inquirer Archives
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