March 17, 2009 06:09 PM Tuesday [ journal.com.ph ]
By: Jess V. Antiporda
MORE than 600,000 landless farmers are expected to benefit from the bill being pushed by Albay Rep. Edcel Lagman, calling for the restoration of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) which would include the mandatory land acquisition and distribution component.
In a weekly Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (PAGCOR) Kapihan ng Bayan news forum in Sulo Hotel, in Quezon City, Lagman, who is the chairman of House committee on agrarian reform, said the compulsory acquisition of private agricultural lands is one of the main features of the bill which is not included in the Carp extension law.
Lagman noted that the extension of the CARP law will never work without the mandatory land acquisition and distribution component which would ensure the beneficiaries of having their own lands.
“We have to revisit the law to address its congenital loopholes as well as the erratic implementation of the law,” said Lagman.
The CARP law was enacted in 1998 during the term of former President Corazon
Aquino and was strengthen further through RA 8532 in 1998 providing additional P50 billion fund for the program and extending it up to 2008.
For the past 20 years of implementation, the program benefitted a total of 2,327,427 landless farmers from at least 4 million hectares distributed by the government.
If the Lagman law will be passed, CARP will have a P100 billion allocation for five years targeting at least one million hectares of land to be distributed to some 650,000 farmers all over the country.
The lawmaker from Albay said House Speaker Norberto Nograles has already formed a special committee which would coordinate with the counterpart committee in the Senate to discuss the commonalities on their respective bills and address the possible problems.
“I think senate also has the same stand regarding the restoration of CARP and there is a need to have an ad hoc committee to discuss the issue. This would mean like a pre-bicameral conference,” he added.
Also included in the bill is the liberalization of financial institutions in the rural areas to simplify the requirements for a loan.
Lagman said credit procedures should be made informal and remove the requirements being sought by rural banks like feasibility studies and other process that make borrowing difficult to farmers.
“Let us compete with the informal credit sector like those offering five-six, so that we can also help boost the rural bank business,” Lagman added.
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