Government
legislators should enact the "CARP extension with reforms" bill instead of the
one being proposed by the Arroyo administration.
We
believe that in its current simplified form, the bill being pushed by the
Arroyo administration is not responsive to the problems besetting the actual
distribution of lands to farmer-beneficiaries. Even worse, this bill allows the
collateralization of CARP-awarded lands, which could only lead to the re-consolidation
of large agricultural landholdings. Moreover, under this bill, government is practically
abandoning its mandated role of providing support services to agrarian reform
beneficiaries (ARBs) because it proposes the liberalization of investments in
agrarian reform-awarded lands.
In
a situation where most ARBs are impoverished, have no protection from force
majeure, and receive very little support services from the government, the
collateralization of farmlands will only accelerate increasing landlessness
among the ARBs, which in turn, would be a recipe for land reconsolidation. In
short, the level of abject poverty among the ARBs would make it very difficult
for them to redeem their lands.
Thus,
instead of achieving the principal objective of strengthening the property
rights of the ARBs, the government's simplified CARP extension bill along with
its farmland as collateral rider provision will only reverse the gains already
achieved under CARP. It would be more prudent to pass into law the alternative being
proposed by agrarian reform advocates, i.e. the ":CARP extension with reforms"
bill.
If
there is one program that that President Arroyo should seriously pursue, which
would leave a lasting impression upon her constituents, it should be the implementation
of a reformed and thoroughgoing Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program. In
particular, her administration should expedite and complete the distribution of
big private agricultural lands during the CARP extension period.
Earlier
in her term, she promised a social payback. We challenge her to show her
commitment by extending as well as reforming agrarian reform implementation.
