Wednesday, October 22, 2008 [ manilatimes.net ]
In an apparent move to beat the December 31, 2008 expiration of the country’s land reform program, the comprehensive agrarian reform program (CARP), Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) Secretary Nasser Pangandaman recently ordered the department’s regional and satellite offices, nationwide, to fast-track the processing and delivery of all the remaining land acquisition and distribution targets of the agency, in light of the uncertainty of the new CARP Law getting the nod of the Senate.
“We have to fulfill our mandate to deliver land to the landless peasants, despite the limited time left for the land distribution program,” Pangandaman said.
The DAR chief said they literally have until second week of December only to complete its tasks, as the remaining weeks of the month will be irregular already because of the Christmas season. There are still close to 2-million hectares of land under CARP, which if pursued, should benefit over 500,000 landless farmers.
Asked if the DAR have already given up with the possibility of CARP’s extension, Pangandaman said, “I am still hopeful for a new CARP Law under President Arroyo’s term, especially when the Lower House just passed the 2009 national budget, that included funds for the CARP’s heart and soul component, which is the land acquisition and distribution.”
Last week, Congress endorsed the national government’s 2009 proposed budget of Php1.415 trillion, including the budget for CARP, thus, effectively giving its stamp of approval for the program’s continuity. Speaker Prospero Nograles said the 2009 budget is an “antidote to economic stagnation and is meant to address whatever problems the raging global economic slowdown may pose to the country.”
Rep. Elias Bulut, Jr., one of the prime movers for CARP’s extension, appealed to his colleagues in both houses of Congress “to stop politicking and think of the welfare of our farmers who are likely to absorb the shocks of the ongoing world financial meltdown” and further said the renewed life of CARP will “help the country weather the crisis, as it will energize the countryside.”
But militant farmers remain restless on the fate of the country’s land reform program, as the Senate is yet to concur on the proposed budget and pass the pending CARP bill.
Roy Ribo, president of the party-list group Alliance for Rural Concerns (ARC) said, “we remain vigilant as forces against the dismantling of huge private estates owned by big politico-hacienderos, continue to wield immense influence and control, over our legislature.”
The peasant leader further alleged that there are “unrelenting maneu-vers” in Congress against HB 4077, or the proposed new CARP Law. In June, Speaker Nograles formed a special committee purportedly aimed at reconciling the bill’s provisions, but farmers perceive it as a “landlord-inspired me-chanism to water down the CARP’s intent and spirit.”
The ARC lambasted the initiatives of committee member and Cama-rines Sur Rep. Luis Villafuerte, who the group said “wants to exclude from CARP, lands covered by banana, pineapple, and big plantations, which will “effectively exempt the remaining vast tracks of lands owned by landlords, and big businesses.”
The DAR’s recent “fast-tracking directive” is expected to expedite the distribution of certificates of land occupancy awards, installation of farmer-beneficiaries who are facing problems occupying their land awards and the resolution of all pending lands, up for distribution and acquisition. “We will make provincial rounds, if need be, in order to ensure that the 2008 CARP targets are met,” Pangandaman ended.
