In 2020, the Philippines Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) initiated a World Bank Group (WBG) funded project titled ‘Support to Parcelization of Lands for Individual Titling,’ abbreviated as ‘SPLIT’. The project subdivides collectively held land titles into individual ones, aiming to improve land tenure security and stabilize property rights. In reality, however, it is just the latest in a long line of market-led agrarian reforms in the Philippines, which have concentrated land in the hands of powerful economic elites.
This primer, by KMP (Peasant Movement of the Philippines), IBON International, People’s Coalition for Food Sovereignty, Paghida-et sa Kauswagan Development Group, Inc. (PDG), and CESR, uses Decoding Injustice to expose how peasants’ rights are being violated by this market-led agrarian reform.
