Report on the meeting of representatives of the Forum with the ambassador of the Philippines, Mr. Oscar Valenzuela, carried out on the 9th of December at the Philippine embassy in Brasilia.

This activity of the Forum occured in the scope of the Global Campaign for Agrarian Reform, coming from the request of the organizations FIAN and Via Campesina. On the 9th of December, an international delegation of these two entities was in Manila to deliver a letter to the President of the Philippines (sent by entities of the Forum in a previous message). The letter requested resources, transparency and expediency in the process of implementation of the Program of Agrarian Reform in that country.

The visit by the Philippine Embassador to Brazil attended to a request that the entities, participants in the Campaign in other countries, make the delivery of a copy of this document to the Philippine authorities, expressing solidarity with the struggle for land in the Philippines.

The realization of the meeting counted on the ample help of the cabinet of Senator Heloísa Helena, which solicited the audience in the name of the Forum. Forty entities and personalities, including six Deputies and seven Senators also collaborated in the collection of signatures, endorsing the initiative of FIAN and Via Campesina.

At the beginning of the session with Mr Valenzuela, representatives of the Forum presented the Global Campaign and sought to enter into debate regarding the agrarian question in the Philippines. Throughout the encounter, the ambassador frequently mentioned the Brazilian agrarian question. According to him, the situation in Brazil is very serious, considering the existence of enormous tracts of land in the hands of few and the millions without land. He expressed his inability to understand the situation, which is different from his country, where according to him there is a lack of land.

Moreover, according to Mr. Valenzuela, the possiblity and fulfillment of agrarian reform is much more difficult in the Philippines, since there is not an abundance of land there. In the face of this shortage, the law permits that properties exceeding five hectacres be expropriated. The current program of agrarian reform has experienced serious problems with the occurance of corruption on the Municipal level, principally with the resale of lands which had already been redistributed. The program has caused reactions of prior landowners whose land had been expropriated.

The ambassador positioned himself in defense of agarian reform affirming that it should prioritize collective forms of land use. This would be difficult in the Philippines, whose farmers have a tradition of individuality.

It was not possible to enter into more critical details regarding the specific case of the Philippines, principally due to the ambassador's strategy of always returing to the problematic Brazilian agrarian question. He admitted, however, that the current program has serious problems, agreeing with some of the critiques placed in the document of FIAN and Via Campesina. At the end of the encounter the strategy of the World Bank was mentioned, including its attempts to implement projects called "market-based agarian reforms" in the Philippines as well. The Bank recently organized a trip of Philippine technicians to Brazil in order that they learn of the "success" of the Cédula de Terra program.

The ambassador, who learned of this trip at the last minute, declared his scepticism in relation to this sort of initiative on the part of the World Bank. He does not believe that this program is viable and affirmed that, in the face of different contexts, the delegation did not have a good impression of the visit. The technicians from the Philippine government, according to him, "loved to get to know such a beautiful country, but were not pleased with the experiences presented to them by the World Bank." He does not believe in any possiblity of implanting such a model of agarian reform in the Philippines.

Goiâna, 10th of December, 1999
Luciano Wolff, CPT/FIAN