CARP Institutional Assessment in a Post-2008 Transition Scenario: Reforms for the Agrarian Justice System

The study focused on the implications of a post 2008 CARP transition scenario for the agrarian law and justice system. It addressed the conflicts after the award of certificates of land ownership awards (CLOA) or emancipation patents (EP). There are six types of conflicts within the agrarian sector: 1) dispute between landowners and the farmer beneficiary; 2) conflict between landowner and the state; 3) conflict between the farmer beneficiary and the state; 4) conflict between farmer beneficiaries; 5) disputes between putative landowners that delay or affect the implementation of any part of the agrarian reform program; and 6) disputes involving participants in the agrarian reform program and third parties. Some of the recommendations are: (a) the principal mode to settle disputes between landowners and farmer beneficiaries should be through compulsory arbitration; (b) the DARAB and the BALA should be restructured to allow compulsory arbitration; (c) the still applicable provisions of the Agricultural Land Reform Code, the relationship of agrarian reform with the Public Land Act and the Property Registration Decree should be included in the statute that will extend the CARP; and (d) the continued training programs for all adjudicators, arbitrators and agrarian reform lawyers and paralegals should be provided to include alternative dispute processing methodologies.