Twenty years of non-violent protest to benefit from the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program

Country: Philippines

Timeline: 1990 - 2010

Principal organisations: PAKISAMA

In 1988, the Philippines embarked on a Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP). A group of 137 indigenous Higaonon farmers applied through the CARP for access to 144 hectares of ancestral land from which they had been evicted 50 years earlier. When the government first awarded and then withdrew their land titles, the farmers waged a 13-year campaign of non-violent protest that included land occupation, camp-outs in front of the Supreme Court, hunger strikes, a 1700 km march, along with continuous dialogue with the private owners of their land. In 2010 they obtained the titles and a 2 million peso loan.