PHNO-INQUIRER EDITORIAL: HOPE (AGAINST HOPE) FOR FARMERS

INQUIRER EDITORIAL: HOPE (AGAINST HOPE) FOR
FARMERS
[PHOTO -Cory's agrarian reform has
been denounced as bogus, with farmers and peasants still unable to own land. To
this day, her own family has resisted the government's effort to put their sugar
estate under land reform. (Photo from
bulatlat.com)]
MANILA, JUNE 19, 2012
(INQUIRER) President Aquino has vowed to fully implement
his mother's 24-year-old Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) in two
years.
He had earlier met with farmer leaders and Catholic bishops for
two hours in Malacañang. Farmers, many of whom had marched from the Visayas and
Mindanao, were in Manila seeking the full implementation of land reform.
Apparently the meeting so impressed the farmers and the bishops that they called
off their hunger strike.
The farmers were "very happy," said Christian Monsod, legal
counsel of the farmers. "He (the President) opened new doors."
Launched in 1988 by the late President Corazon Aquino as the centerpiece of
her social justice program, CARP was extended for another five years in 2009
with a total allocation of P150 billion. It is now called CARP Extension with
Reforms (Carper).
With Carper set to expire on June 30, 2014, the government is now scrambling
to fully implement it. How to meet the deadline will depend on what "doors" to
open in order to substantially implement the law and on government's willingness
to see the measures through.
For openers, presidential spokesperson Edwin Lacierda said that the Armed
Forces of the Philippines, the Department of Interior and Local Government, and
the Philippine National Police would be mobilized for the distribution of 1
million hectares of land, comprising some of the country's prime agricultural
estates yet to be covered by CARP and has directed them to ensure "the peaceful
and orderly installation of farmer-beneficiaries of all lands under the
program."
The priority, the spokesperson further said, would be landholdings 25
hectares and above. For these lands, notices of coverage will be issued on or
before the end of 2012, he added. Land under 10 hectares will be issued notices
of coverage by July 2013.
It appears the targets are practical and sound. By putting all the lands in
question under notice of coverage, government will ensure the implementation of
Carper beyond 2014.
But Lacierda is mum on how to energize the Department of Agrarian Reform to
meet the government's self-imposed targets.
The farmers and the bishops have after all deplored in a letter to Malacañang
that the DAR has been "consistently underperforming." Moreover, it's only now,
three years after Carper was passed, that government is coming around to really
implementing it.
Lacierda said that the government would "now start" allocating P30 billion
every year, which is what the five-year extension law sets. The Aquino
administration set aside P16.37 billion for 2011 and P17.9 billion for 2012. By
the budgets alone, it could be gleaned that government has been falling short of
the Carper mandate.
The tale of the tape says the Carper deadline wouldn't be fully met in two
years.
Still, we hope against hope that it would be.



Chief News Editor: Sol Jose Vanzi
© Copyright, 2012 by PHILIPPINE HEADLINE NEWS ONLINE
All
rights reserved




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