Vol. XXI, No. 188-A [ Business World Online ]
Saturday, April 26, 2008 | MANILA, PHILIPPINES
The House of Representatives will fast track the passage of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) extension bill before the Congress adjourns regular session on June, 13, Speaker Prospero C. Nograles said.
The bill seeks to extend the agrarian reform program for another five years.
Mr. Nograles, however reiterated the need not just to extend the said program but also to improve its implementation.
This as President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo on Friday urged Congress to include a provision that will allow farmers to use their farm lands as collateral in the CARP extension bill.
"After 20 years of implementation, we have seen many loopholes in the CARP Law so we have to correct them through this proposed extension. For one, we really have to put in place a provision prohibiting conversion of agricultural lands to stop the decline of agricultural production and boost our food security program," Mr. Nograles said in a statement.
Another flaw of the CARP implementation, Mr. Nograles said, is the lack of government support and monitoring of the distributed lands to ensure that each piece of land awarded to farmer-beneficiaries is productive.
"All lands distributed under the CARP Law should be productive. I’ve heard stories about beneficiaries using their lands as collateral to loan money just to be able to buy a new television set. All distributed lands should be highly productive, especially now that we are in the middle of a global food problem," Mr. Nograles said.
CARP, which is embodied in Republic Act 6657, seeks to distribute the farm land of wealthy families to farmers.
The government originally set a 10-year time frame to implement the program, starting from the June 10, 1988 signing of the law. But due to problems like below-target distribution, landowner resistance, and lack of budget, Congress extended the program to 2008.
CARP is set to expire on June 10 but lawmakers from both the House of Representatives and the Senate have filed bills seeking to extend it. The bill has been certified by the President as a priority measure.
Militant farmer groups, however, have criticized the pace of implementation, claiming the government is favoring wealthy landowners. These groups have also scored violent incidents and deaths arising from landowners’ refusal to turn over their land.
EXTENSION APPROVED
Last Wednesday, the House Committee on Agrarian Reform, chaired by Rep. Elias Bulut Jr. of Apayao, approved the five-year extension of CARP to 2013.
The bill primarily ensures that farm lands will not be converted into industrial land or residential subdivisions, to allow to farmers to continue planting crops. The bill provides P100 billion in funding for land acquisition, distribution and other funding requirements of the CARP Program. It also tasks the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) to submit an annual report on the progress of the program to Congress .
Another key feature of the bill is the provision recognizing the right of rural women to own and control land distributed under the new CARP.
With the House’s approval of CARP’s extension, advocates are now waiting for a similar measure from the Senate to form a joint bill to be submitted to President Macapagal-Arroyo for her signature.
GMA’S WISH
President Macapagal-Arroyo on Friday urged Congress to include a provision that will allow farmers to use their farm lands as collateral in the bill that will extend the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP).
"If we want CARP to be successful, we must include a provision that allows farmers to use their agricultural lands for credit. [Then] they will be able to have formal credit and will be able to earn money out of their rice production," she said in an interview by local media in Negros Oriental.
In a press conference, Press Secretary Ignacio R. Bunye said CARP can help improve the lives of those in rural communities if Congress provides ways to enhance farmers’ access to finances.
"It is important that farmers have credit facilities. The implementation of agrarian reform programs would not be enough if we do not back them up with credit facilities," he said.
The Press Secretary said the Executive and lawmakers will meet soon to discuss the proposed provision.
"That (CARP provision) will be taken up whenever appropriate and one of the modes of extending credit facilities is to allow the use of farm lands as collateral," he said.
DETAILS
During the Agrarian Reform committe meeting, Palawan Representative Abraham Kahlil B. Mitra, chairman of the House committee on agriculture and food, proposed that the system of selecting the beneficiaries of the land reform program should be reviewed. He likewise proposed that beneficiaries of the program automatically become members of government-accredited cooperatives that would provide them with financial assistance for tilling their lands.
The government would appropriate P100 billion for the extension of the program.
The bill states that for the five year extension period, a minimum of three agrarian reform communities (ARCs) shall be established by the Department of Agrarian (DAR) in coordination with the local government units, non-government organization (NGOs), and people’s organizations (POs) in each legislative district with a predominantly agricultural population.
Another key feature of the proposed amendatory law is the provision recognizing the right of rural women to own and control land distributed under the new CARP.
However, a provision on whether to allow farmers to use their lands as loan collateral has yet to be voted upon by the committee in their next meeting.
Meanwhile, to ensure that the extended CARP is efficiently implemented, the Congressional Oversight Committee on Agricultural and Fisheries Modernization (COCAFM) has commissioned three institutions to conduct a comprehensive assessment of the program.
The three groups are the University of Asia and the Pacific Center for Food and Agribusiness, the University of the Philippines in Los Banos Foundation, Inc., and the Southeast Asian Regional Center for Graduate Study and Research in Agriculture (SEARCA).
The COCAFM has created a special committee composed of Senators Angara, Gregorio Honasan, Juan Miguel Zubiri, Representatives Mitra, Salvador Escuderro, and Rodolfo Antonino to commission the study groups.
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