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WITH the
failure of the House of Representatives to pass the bill
extending the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program
(CARP), which expired on Tuesday, Speaker Prospero
Nograles filed a joint resolution to have the program
extended until December 31 this year.
During
this period, Nograles said Congress could craft safety
nets as the legislators would have time for a more
exhaustive discussion of the CARP extension and thus
correct the flaws of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform
Law of 1998, an extension of the original 1988 law.
Joint
Resolution 21 titled, “A joint resolution maintaining
the effectivity of the land acquisition component of
Republic Act 6657, as amended, known as the
Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Law of 1998 until December
31, 2008,” was filed by Nograles Tuesday night. It was
unanimously approved on second reading after the House
failed to approve the CARP extension even after a
tumultuous marathon session.
The
Joint Resolution 21 was approved Wednesday night even as
Nograles immediately ordered its transmittal to the
Senate. He appealed to senators to favorably act on it.
Nograles
said the CARP is not completely dead even with its June
10 expiration because the funding for its Land
Acquisition Distribution (LAD) component is until
December this year.
At the
same time, Lakas Rep. Edcel Lagman of Albay, author of
House Bill 4077, the measure extending CARP, said that
with the latest development, farmers “scored a triple
victory” when the House in an all-party executive caucus
voted 97-82, with five abstentions, for the passage of
the extension bill, approved on second reading Joint
Resolution 21 and mandated Congress in the same joint
resolution to adopt on or before December 31 a
definitive bill on the extension of LAD.
Lagman
explained that despite the majority vote in favor of the
LAD extension, the House leadership decided to pass the
joint resolution because
there was no way for Congress to enact the extension
bill before the June 13 adjournment since the Senate has
not even reported out its version for plenary
consideration.
Once
concurred in by the Senate and approved by President
Arroyo, the joint resolution would have the force and
effect of a law, he said.
Meanwhile, militant legislators denounced party-list
Rep. Risa Hontiveros-Baraquel of Akbayan for what they
described as a malicious and irresponsible statement
accusing them of being “in collusion with landlords” and
out to “maim, cripple or kill ‘agrarian reform’ in the
country.”
“Hontiveros-Baraquel’s accusation is farthest from the
truth. It’s a cheap shot at progressive party-list
groups and made to gain media mileage for the extension
of the bogus [CARP],” said Party-list Reps. Satur Ocampo,
Teodoro Casiño of Bayan Muna, and Liza Maza and
Luzviminda Ilagan of Gabriela, in a joint statement.
They
said Akbayan’s “agrarian reform program” of peasants
compensating the landlords that have long exploited and
burdened the farmers with amortization runs contrary to
the principle of social justice and emancipation of
peasants.
“In
fact, thousands of emancipation patents and certificates
of land transfer were revoked because of the poor
peasants’ failure to pay the amortization,” they said.
“Hontiveros saying that GARB [Genuine Agrarian Reform
Bill] is ‘mere stewardship program’ grossly distorts the
universally accepted concept of ‘land to the tillers.’
Akbayan’s idea of giving the land reform beneficiary the
right to sell and transfer land weakens the precept of
land to the tiller. It will encourage farmers to sell,
not to till the land,” they added.
Malacañang said Wednesday that the CARP would be fully
implemented this year, by which time lawmakers would
have passed the bill extending an improved version of
the program for another five years.
Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita said in his weekly
news briefing that House leaders had told the President
that the House could pass a joint resolution by
Wednesday night.
“Therefore, there is no sense talking about it now, they
have time to discuss the subject matter when they reopen
Congress after the Sona [State of the Nation Address] in
July. They have specific amendments to the present law,
which they will have more time to discuss when they come
back in July,” Ermita said.
Agrarian
Reform Secretary Nasser Pangandaman said the joint
resolution is intended to “calm [down]” groups who fear
that CARP would lapse on June 15.
“What
the House did is to issue a resolution because others
are saying that the (CARP) component on land acquisition
and distribution would end on June 15. Our view is that
would not end June 15, it would end December 2008,” he
said.
He
explained that while Republic Act 6657 provided for the
expiration of the Carp on June 15–which led some to
believe that it would expire on that date this year–RA
6657 had been earlier amended to extend it by 10 years,
or from 1998 to 2008.
“In the
amended law, it says there that it would expire December
2008,” he said.
Pangandaman is confident the December 2008 CARP expiry
would “definitely” stand up in court, if questioned.
“It is
really our position that it will expire December 2008.
Therefore, our activities will go on until December
2008,” he said.
Pangandaman said that despite Congress’s failure to pass
the CARP’s extension, the government will meet its
target of acquiring and distributing 130,000 hectares of
land to farmer-beneficiaries this year.
A
five-year extension would allow the government to
acquire and distribute the remaining 1.8 million
hectares of land under CARP to meet the overall target
of 9.1 million hectares.
He
reiterated that the 2008 budget provides funds for land
acquisition and distribution, and reported that the DAR
has accomplished 40 percent of its target for the year.
He
disputed allegations that CARP slowed down when he took
over in 2005, saying the reverse has happened.
“When I
assumed office in 2005, annual target 100,000 hectares.
Right after my assumption [to office], I increased this
by 30,000 hectares. Records will show [that],” he said.
He denied allegations that the Arroyos have been
resisting the CARP coverage of their land in
Negros province, adding that “almost 90 percent of the Arroyo lands
are covered [by] CARP.”
However,
agrarian reform advocates rejected the joint resolution
approved by the House to extend DAR’s budget for land
acquisition and distribution, describing it a mere “pa-consuelo
de bobo.” (Fernan Marasigan, Mia Gonzalez and
Jonathan Mayuga) |
