Vol. XXI, No. 214 [ Business World Online ]
Monday, June 2, 2008 | MANILA, PHILIPPINES
THE HOUSE of Representatives yesterday vowed to fast-track the approval of the proposed measure seeking to extend the government’s Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) for another five years.
This as the CARP’s land acquisition and distribution (LAD) component is set to expire on June 10, two decades after the CARP law was enacted, House Majority Floor Leader Arthur D. Defensor, Sr. said.
In a telephone interview, Mr. Defensor, who is also the House committee on rules chairman, said that the top of their agenda for today (Monday) is the continuation of the plenary debates for House Bill (HB) 4077 or "An Act Sustaining the Implementation of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP), extending the Acquisition and Distribution of All Agricultural Lands, Instituting Necessary Reforms and Appropriations of Fund."
"We [on the committee on rules] are targeting the approval of the bill on second reading this week, and if the President will certify it [HB 4077] as urgent, we can immediately vote for its approval on final reading right after the second reading," Mr. Defensor said.
Malacañang on Saturday made a statement that President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo is ready to certify as urgent the proposed House measure with a request of including a provision that would make lands covered by the CARP as collateral for agriculture-related businesses.
"We are open to that proposal of using farmlands as collateral, as well as on the proposal to include a provision on corporate farming. All of these amendments we aim to discuss in the plenary this week," Mr. Defensor said.
Corporate farming would require the country’s most profitable corporations to engage in agricultural production to feed their own employees, with idle lands to be tapped for farming.
"The House’s target is to finish the period of debate and period of amendments on Tuesday, and approve the bill on second reading on Wednesday," Mr. Defensor said.
"The LAD will expire on June 10, and if we will not act on this, all our efforts to extend CARP will be futile because the most vital part of CARP is the land acquisition and distribution," he added.
Albay Rep. Edcel C. Lagman (1st District), member of the House committee on agrarian reform and chairman of the committee on appropriations, said that if Congress fails to extend the LAD component of the CARP before it expires on June 10, "it would virtually kill CARP in violation of the Constitution."
"Since LAD is central to the CARP, Congress has to extend LAD to comply with the constitutional mandate that the ’State shall, by law, undertake an agrarian reform program founded on the right of farmers and regular farm workers who are landless, to own directly or collectively the lands they till’ and likewise undertake the just distribution of all agricultural lands, embodied in Section 4 of Article VIII of the Constitution," Mr. Lagman said in a statement.
Based on the records of the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) and the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), as stated in HB 4077, the government has yet to acquire a balance nationwide of 1,858,792 hectares of agricultural lands that could be distributed to the farmer beneficiaries during the proposed five-year extension of the LAD.
The Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Law or Republic Act 6657 passed in 1988, served as the centerpiece program of the administration of Former President Corazon S. Aquino. The CARL allowed landless farmers and farm workers to own directly or collectively the lands they till.
During the period of debate on the bill last week, Deputy Majority Leader and Cavite Rep. Jesus Crispin C. Remulla (3rd district) said that in the past 20 years of implementation of CARP, many of the Certificates of Land Ownership Award (CLOAs) have been sold and that none of the children of the farmer beneficiaries wants to till the soil which "could endanger the productivity of the land."
Upon which, Mr. Lagman said that the implementing agencies for the CARP program must review the policies with respect to the land distribution and acquisition policy of the program.
He also said that aside from the extension of LAD for five years under HB 4077, the proposed measure also provides that the CLOAs and other titles to be issued under the program are indefeasible for one year from registration.
The proposed measure also seeks to appropriate a minimum P100 billion to cover the LAD extension and increase the allocation of support services for farmers to 40% from 25% from the CARP funds.
In a text message House Speaker Prospero C. Nograles said that, "Though the approval of HB 4077 is rough sailing, I will try my best to move and approve it before the session adjourns this month." — Elizabeth T. Marcelo
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