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House resolution on land acquisition, distribution useless – Pimentel

By Christina Mendez
Friday, June 13, 2008 [ philstar.com ]

The House of Representatives’ joint resolution on land acquisition and distribution became useless after the Senate did not act on it prior to adjournment on Wednesday.

Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel Jr. said the resolution was “too late in the day” because the Senate still needs additional information and documents from Agrarian Reform Secretary Nasser Pangandaman before they would act on the renewal of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) which expired last June 10.

Pimentel said Pangandaman’s report still lacked certain information that he and other senators need to decide on the legislative measure extending CARP.

“In general, the accounting of the CARP funds made by Secretary Pangandaman is okay. But I still need additional details on the identification of landowners whose lands were acquired and paid for by the government during his stint and what assistance or support services were directly given to specific land reform beneficiaries,” Pimentel said.

As this developed, the farmers group Panay Federation of Sugarcane Farmers Inc. (PFSFI) urged the Senate yesterday to allocate the remaining P12-billion budget for CARP for the unpaid owners of lands acquired and distributed by the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) as of June 2008.

The PFSFI’s appeal came a day after the House of Representatives passed a joint resolution allowing the DAR to use the remaining CARP budget for land acquisition and distribution.

“Why must new lands be acquired if the government has not even paid for millions of hectares previously taken from landowners?” said PFSFI president Francis Trenas in his letter to Senate President Manuel Villar, adding that the Constitution declares that just compensation is guaranteed when the state expropriates private property.

During the May 21 hearing of the Senate committee on agrarian reform, Pangandaman reported that the total area of land taken for agrarian reform is already 7.1-million hectares as of 2007.

In the same hearing, Land Bank officials said it had approved payment for 600,000 hectares only, estimated at P37 billion.

Out of this figure, a total of 500,000 hectares have been fully paid under the agrarian reform program, Trenas said.

Meantime, Sen. Juan Ponce Enrile, chairman of the Senate committee on finance, recommended that the remaining budget for land reform be used to support beneficiaries of the CARP program.

Enrile said the government’s land acquisition and distribution should be stopped for the meantime and focus should be given to the old beneficiaries.

Like Pimentel, Enrile remains disappointed with the accounting of the DAR on the CARP. – With Perseus Echeminada

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