March 10, 2015
Daily Star by Carla Gomez | http://goo.gl/DPgNvT
A Department of Agrarian Reform official yesterday denied that the DAR made a list of 44 members of Congress opposed to House Bill No. 4296, that would extend the 27-year-old Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program for another two years, on the basis of personal motives.
It only came up with a list of those who would possibly oppose the bill, DAR Undersecretary for Legal Affairs Luis Meinrado Pañgulayan said in a DAR statement.
The list reportedly included Negros Occidental Representatives Julio Ledesma IV (1st District), Leo Rafael Cueva (2nd District), Alfredo Benitez (3rd District), Jeffrey Ferrer (4th District), Alejandro Mirasol (5th District), and Neri Colmenares (Bayan Muna), who is from Bacolod City.
The three congressmen of Negros Oriental - Manuel Iway (1st District), George Arnaiz (2nd District) and Henry Teves (3rd District) were also reportedly on the list.
Pañgulayan admitted that the legislative liaison of the DAR was directed to come up with an analysis on who among the members of Congress will possibly oppose H.B. No. 4296 in order to aid the agency to draw up a roadmap in marshalling legislative support for the passage of the bill.
“The resulting list merely stated names of all the members of the House of Representatives and their possible votes, nothing else,” Pañgulayan added.
Benitez yesterday said the DAR should produce the list and show its basis. “I'm not even a member of the Agrarian Reform Committee and have not voted on the matter,” he said.
DAR Undersecretary for Field Operations Jose Grageda reiterated that around 695,000 hectares of agricultural land are still to be processed for acquisition and distribution. Although most of these are already being processed, the DAR needs a law in order to acquire and distribute possibly 50,000 hectares of the abovementioned 695,000.
FERRER STAND
Ferrer yesterday said yes, he is anti-CARP.
“The law has been there for decades and yet, the beneficiaries are still considered poorest of the poor because it is not enough to only give land to the landless. We also have to give them support services in order for their land to be more productive; something that CARP has miserably failed to do over the years,” he said.
“What we have to do now is to focus on support services to the already identified, covered and distributed land, and ensure that they become more productive which would, in turn, uplift the lives of the beneficiaries,” he added.
COLMENARES
Colmenares said Bayan stands on its position that the CARP should not be extended and it is time to approve the Genuine Agrarian Reform Bill.
They are against CARP because it favors the landlord, he said, stressing that they are asking for a genuine agrarian reform law that gives land to the farmers for free and the government pays the compensation for the landlords.
LEDESMA
Ledesma said the anti-CARP tag is the most absurd thing.
The congressmen has said that he has been working on a massive program in his district that will make CARP beneficiaries there wealthy.
BENITEZ
Benitez had earlier said the DAR should convince him that the CARP was a success for him to agree to extend it.
“We want to know if the program has succeeded or failed, because why should we extend a failing program?” he said.
Existing agrarian reform beneficiaries should be provided support mechanisms and capability-building to effectively manage farms, Benitez said.
SUGARMEN
Sugar industry leaders yesterday said they agreed with Benitez’s position.
Manuel Lamata, president of United Sugar Producers Federation of the Philippines, said “We in UNIFED back the call of Cong. Benitez to prove first that CARP has succeeded. Our members know it is a total failure. The money should be spent in helping farm beneficiaries to be given tractors, implements, fertilizers rather than extending a failed program.”
He said the legislators should scrap CARP.
Government should instead focus on the rehabilitation of the sugar industry and prepare it to face the open market against the highly subsidized industries in Asia, he said.
“Government should act now for the survival of the six million dependents of the sugar industry,” he said.
Rafael Coscolluela, president of the Confederation of Sugar Producers Associations, said he shares the position of Benitez.
“I share his position, but above that, every effort must be exerted to make existing ARBs successful and Philippine agriculture more productive. That includes the support that the Sugar Act can provide, the block farming program and another law that will make CARPed lands bankable,” he said.
Enrique Rojas, president of the National Federation of Sugarcane Planters, said “We commend him (Benitez) for his wisdom and courage in taking the right stand on the CARP issue. Almost three decades of CARP implementation has stunted the growth of agriculture in our country.”
From an agricultural exporter, the Philippines has become net importer of agricultural products, Rojas said.
“CARP has not improved the lives of agrarian reform beneficiaries because support services were lacking...Government should focus more on extending support services to existing ARBs, instead of further fragmentalizing productive agricultural lands,” Rojas added.
EXTENSION SOUGHT
Meanwhile, 15 peasant women clad in yellow shirts led by landless farmers from Negros Occidental yesterday trooped to the Batasang Pambansa in Quezon City and had their heads shaved to protest the House of Representatives’ failure to immediately pass bills that will extend and overhaul the implementation of the CARP, Task Force Mapalad said in a press release.
The women farmers particularly assailed the Visayan bloc in Congress for blocking the passage of House Bill 4296 and House Bill 4375, it said.