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By Jayson Cruz Luna, Reporter
Comprehensive Agrarian Reform
Program (CARP) extension, particularly of its Land Acquisition and
Distribution (LAD) which is set to expire on June 15, has been
sought by government agencies and farmers alike on Saturday.
Agrarian Reform’s Land
Acquisition and Distribution department Director Rodolfo Bueno urged
the House of Representatives to speed up in passing a law for the
CARP’s extension, considering that the House session is about to
close.
“There’s still barely six
session days remaining, we’re still hopeful that Congress could
still pass a law for the [CARP] extension since it will enable the
government agency to continue acquiring and distributing lands to
qualified beneficiaries under the land reform program,” Bueno
said.
He, however, assured that the
department has sufficient funds until December as part of CARP’s
P13-billion budget for 2008.
Task Force Mapalad (TFM), a
group of farm workers based in Negros Occidental, echoed Bueno’s
call for extension, but said CARP should also consider the
farmers’ harvest, “CARP
is an effective program of the government, it just needs to be
reformed to include support services that will lead to good harvest
for us farmers,” said TFM President Jose Rodito Angeles said.
“We deserve to have a fair share of the lands that President
Gloria Arroyo promised to give us in 2001.”
Angeles cited the move allegedly
done by Bacolod 5th District congressman Ignacio Arroyo to convert
Hacienda Bakan into an agro-industrial plant for bio-ethanol
processing under the Philippines-China deal.
The House Committee on Agrarian
Reform headed by Rep. Elias Bulut Jr. of the lone district of Apayao
already approved a bill for CARP’s extension, particularly LAD,
for five years and a corresponding budget of P100 billion.
The CARP extension bill was
one of the 17 measures recently endorsed by the
Legislative-Executive Development Advisory Council for Congress’
approval.
The bill, a consolidation
of 15 measures filed in the house, seeks to extend Land Acquisition
and Distribution of more than a million hectares of land until 2013
with an appropriation of P100 billion.
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