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THE
Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) is
virtually dead, even if the House of Representatives
approves the bill extending the law, which expired on
Tuesday. It would not be enacted into law as the Senate
would have no more time to pass its own version.
At the
same time, President Arroyo has not indicated that she
will call a special session to deliberate on the CARP,
said Speaker Prospero Nograles, who is also cool to the
idea of a special session.
A
five-year extension of CARP through House Bill (HB) 4077
was filed and is awaiting its passage by Congress.
Another bill, the Genuine Agrarian Reform Bill (GARB),
or House Bill 3059, authored by the late Anakpawis
Party-list Rep. Crispin Beltran, is also under
consideration. The GARB bill contains provision that
will distribute agricultural and commercial lands in the
country.
“If the
only reason that we will go on special session is CARP,
and the Senate can’t pass it anyway, we might as well
not go on a special session,” he said.
“There’s
no CARP without the Senate. There can possibly be no
CARP without the Senate. There can be no law without the
Senate,” Nograles stressed in a news conference Tuesday
before the House session started to deliberate the
matter.
“Based
on the public pronouncements of senators, even if a
special session is called, they can’t pass the CARP. So
I guess, we can say ‘don’t look at us, look at them
[referring to the senators],’” he added.
Nevertheless, Nograles said members of the House are
giving their best shot as the majority in the chamber
have agreed to have the program extended.
“It’s
just a question of putting the safety nets in place. But
I think the marching orders from administration, it
being a certified bill, we will be able to see this
through today or tomorrow,” Nograles said.
Meanwhile, Akbayan Party-list Rep. Risa Hontiveros
accused the militant bloc in the House of alleged
colluding with landlords in Congress “to maim, cripple
and kill” the agrarian reform in the country.
“We
can’t possibly celebrate the 20th anniversary of
agrarian reform today [Tuesday] when all we hear in
Congress is the tolling of the bells. If Congress fails
to enact the bill extending and
reforming CARP, today would be remembered by landless
farmers as a Day of Shame,” Hontiveros said.
“So far,
they have succeeded in delaying the process by
questioning the quorum despite appeals from Speaker
Nograles himself that the bill should be approved since
it is a priority measure. This week, we expect a deluge
of killer amendments so that even if the program is
extended, the already weak law would be rendered inutile
by more loopholes,” she said.
She also
slammed what she described as the emerging collusion
between landlords in Congress and leftist legislators
pushing for the so-called GARB.
“The
similarity in their agenda is revolting. They are doing
a very synchronized performance to kill agrarian
reform,” Hontiveros said.
Contrary
to the claims of the proponents of GARB, Hontiveros said
there is nothing genuine in it.
“They
claim that the lands would be given to farmers for free.
The truth is that GARB is about stewardship. The farmers
would not own the lands. The state, which would
confiscate the property and would be the real owner of
the lands, would merely allow the farmers to use it,”
she said.
Meanwhile, Roman Catholic bishops urged President Arroyo
to call for a special session as the CARP ended Tuesday.
The
bishops celebrated Mass at the National Shrine of St.
Michael and the Archangels near Malacañang to reiterate
their call for a special session in Congress as both
chambers failed to extend CARP for another five years.
“We
offered this Mass near Malacañang so that our prayers
would reach the ears of our leaders faster. This is
also a statement coming from a small gathering saying
that we are not losing hope in a God who acts,” said
Manila Archbishop Broderick Pabillo in his homily.
At the
same time, an official of the Presidential Commission on
Good Government (PCGG) on Tuesday said that if lawmakers
fail to give life to the CARP, then the recoveries of
the agency would automatically go to the national
government.
“Assuming the CARP law would not be extended, then it
follows that all our recoveries would go to the general
fund of the government,” Narciso Nario, PCGG
commissioner for legal affairs, said.
The PCGG
estimated the Marcoses and their alleged cronies have
billions of pesos of alleged ill-gotten wealth stashed
in various banks and foundations in the country and
abroad.
Earlier,
administration ally Sen. Joker Arroyo said he favors the
law’s extension but with reservations. Arroyo, as
executive secretary in the Aquino administration, signed
the Agrarian Reform Act in 1987.
Agrarian
Reform Secretary Nasser Pangandaman said his office has
forwarded to the Senate the inventory of lands and
beneficiaries, and impact assessment of CARP a few weeks
after the chamber’s hearing on the proposal on May 21.
Meanwhile, Bishop Pabillo urged farmers not to resort to
violence if the government fails to extend the program.
A total
of 1.86 million hectares of agricultural land have yet
to be distributed to about 1.44 million farmers after
the 20-year program.
Cagayan
de Oro Archbishop Antonio Ledesma, head of the
church-organized Second National Rural Congress,
criticized Malacañang for its decisions that favored
landowners.
“The
Office of the President, which is obviously less
knowledgeable about the reform program than the DAR
[Department of Agrarian Reform] itself, has at times
reversed DAR orders without consulting the department,
sometimes depriving farmers who have held
agrarian-reform land titles for a decade of continued
land tenure,” said Ledesma in a pastoral reflection.
The
former vice president of the Catholic Bishops’
Conference of the Philippines said more than 300,000
hectares of land are tied up in litigation, “slowing
down the beneficial effects of the reform program
oftentimes in ways less than transparent.”
Task
Force Mapalad accused Arroyo’s allies in Congress of
preventing the bill from getting approved since the
program also covers more than 400 hectares of land owned
by the President’s in-laws in Negros Occidental.
The CBCP
said it is yet to discuss its next move once the program
expires.
On
Tuesday some 1,000 protesters, together with farmers
from Southern Luzon, held peaceful actions across Metro
Manila, pressing for CARP’s extension.
The
ralliers started marching from the Department of
Agrarian Reform in Quezon City. They were holding mass
actions in front of the building since Monday.
Orly
Marcellana, secretary-general of Kasama-TK, said besides
the extension of CARP, they are also pushing for the
passing of the GARB. (With C. Jimenez, C. Mocon and TJ
Agcaoili) |
