|
THE
Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG)
Tuesday appealed to the House of Representatives to
fast-track approval of the proposed measure to extend
the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) for
five years because of 1.86 million hectares of
agricultural lands that have not been placed under the
land-reform law.
“We have
to extend the CARP because the farmers are the direct
beneficiaries of all these ill-gotten wealth we
recovered and will be recovering,” said Narciso Nario,
the commissioner for legal affairs.
The
CARP’s land-acquisition and -distribution component is
set to expire on June 10, two decades after the CARP law
was enacted.
During
the debate on the bill last week, Deputy Majority Leader
and Cavite Rep. Jesus Crispin Remulla said that in the
past 20 years of CARP, many of the certificates of land
ownership award (CLOAs) have been sold and that none of
the children of the farmer-beneficiaries want to till
the soil—which “could endanger the productivity of the
land.”
This,
apparently, is one reason Rep. Edcel Lagman of Albay,
member of the agrarian-reform and appropriations
committees, also wants the extension bill to provide for
at least one year indefeasibility of distributed lands.
The
proposed measure also seeks to appropriate a minimum
P100 billion, part of which would be to increase the
allocation of support services for farmers to 40 percent
from 25 percent from the CARP funds.
But Sen.
Panfilo Lacson wants something more focused—that the
entire P100 billion be entirely for support services to
make sure beneficiaries have the means to till their
land. He added that mostly lack of capital and weak
harvests due to lack of more productive technology
results in distributed farms being sold or converted.
He added
a minor industry has also arisen from this flaw in the
the CARP implementation—that it has been turned into a
milking cow for unscrupulous parties, including some
officials and employees of the Department of Agrarian
Reform.
Lacson
strongly suggested it would be better for government to
channel these funds to much-needed intervention services
for farmer beneficiaries such as irrigation,
farm-to-market roads, postharvest facilities, technical
support, and availability of seeds and other inputs.
“Instead
of extending the CARP, which has been the milking cow of
unscrupulous DAR employees during the past so many
years, I am inclined to push for an efficient support
program for the farmer beneficiaries already covered by
the CARP. We have seen so many cases of farmer
beneficiaries having land to till but with no means to
do it,” said Lacson.
He said
the last thing farmers want is to see a repeat of the
P728-million fertilizer scam engineered by then
Agriculture undersecretary Jocelyn Bolante so that such
interventions should all be aboveboard.
He added
that “I have information that the government has been
losing [land reform] cases before the courts lately. Is
this happening based on the merits, or is it happening
for millions of reasons?”
Nario,
meanwhile, had said the PCGG is now working doubly hard
to ensure that there would be faster recoveries for the
farmers. Are they winning? “I appeal to Congress they
should extend immediately the life of CARP.”
Nario
said that should the CARP law be allowed to lapse, then
the proceeds of their recoveries of ill-gotten wealth
amassed during the Marcos dictatorship from the Marcoses
and their cronies would go directly to the general
funds.
From
there the allocation of funds for the farmers would be
in the hands of lawmakers, which he indicated is a
longer process.
Malacañang on Saturday stated that President Arroyo is
ready to certify as urgent the extension bill, with a
request to include a provision that allows the use of
lands covered by CARP as loan collateral for
agriculture-related businesses.
Records
of the Departments of Agrarian Reform and of Environment
and Natural Resources show the government still has to
acquire 1.86 million hectares of agricultural lands that
could be distributed to farmers, which is the target of
the proposed 5-year extension.
Meanwhile, Akbayan Rep. Risa Hontiveros accused
colleagues from Negros Island, led by Negros Occidental
Rep. Ignacio Arroyo, of blocking passage of the CARP
extension bill.
More
than 200,000 hectares of the 1.1 million hectares that
DAR has yet to distribute to farmers, she said, are in
Negros. She thus warned of “midnight
conversion” and “reclassification” of lands if Congress
passes the CARP extension bill. |
