The unfinished implications of ‘finished’ land reform: Local experiences of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program in Leyte, Philippines

The Philippines’ Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) involved major land redistribution from 1988 to 2014. The program sought to alleviate poverty, promote rural development and social justice through land redistribution. Through qualitative inquiry, this research highlights farmer’s voice and experiences throughout the implementation of CARP. Our research draws on 75 in-depth interviews and field observations on the island of Leyte in 2018 – 30 years on from CARP and 4 years after the program was officially finished. The focus of this analysis is the individual experiences of beneficiaries of CARP, who received land parcels in the 1990s under CARP. This paper argues that the seemingly ‘finished’ program has protracted and unresolved implications for local communities. We further make three specific arguments in this paper. First, that beneficiaries experience a ‘land titling and payment loop’. In this condition, beneficiaries are caught in a cyclical dilemma of needing to complete land payments to obtain imprescriptible land titles. Yet, they also need land titles to access the credit market in order to increase farm production and income that enables them to pay for the land. Second, beneficiaries continue to experience tension and conflict that result in ‘court cases, land sales, and threats of violence’, which renders many farmers landless. Lastly, we argue that CARP altered the community relationship as beneficiaries endure lasting ‘stigma and prejudice’. These conditions highlight that land tenure security extends beyond redistribution and titling and is significantly shaped by social cohesion and belonging. • Philippines’ CARP has protracted and unresolved implications. • Beneficiaries experience a ‘land titling and payment loop’ that place tenure security on hold. • Continued tensions led to court cases, land sales, and threats of violence left many beneficiaries landless. • CARP altered community relationships that led stigma and prejudice post-reform. • Land tenure security is shaped by social cohesion and belonging.