DAR elated by PGMA's pronouncement over CARP extension
The provincial office of the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) based in this city expressed elation over the pronouncement of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo in her recent State of the Nation Address(SONA) that the extension of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) with reforms is a top priority national agenda.
"We are glad with the President's pronouncement to extend CARP as a top priority. I believe majority of the population especially the farmers are happy with the action of President Arroyo", said Provincial Agrarian Reform Officer II Ricardo Fernandez in a statement.
In her SONA, President Arroyo said that "sinimulan ng aking ama ang land reform noong 1963. Upang mabuo ito, the extension of CARP with reforms is top priority. I will continue to do all I can for the rural as well as urban poor".
She further added that "Agrarian reform should not merely subdivide misery, it must raise living standards. Ownership raises the farmer from his knees but productivity will keep him on his feet".
With the pronouncement, said Fernandez, their work balances on Land Tenure Improvement (LTI), Program Beneficiaries Development (PBD) and Agrarian Justice Delivery (AJD) are assured to be completed.
"It could also mean more generous foreign assistance for PBD as DAR's track record is impressive on this," added Fernandez.
During her SONA, the President Arroyo also warned the racketeers over the DAR and their co-conspirators of their modus operandi.
"We must curb the recklessness that gives land without the means to make it productive and bites off more than beneficiaries can chew" she said, adding "At the same time, I want the rackets out of agrarian reform: the threats to take and therefore undervalue land, the conspiracies to overvalue it".
Fernandez said there must really be some important reforms needed in the continuous implementation of the program.
The President gave December 2008 as deadline for involved agrarian-reform workers to shape up: "Be with me on this. There must be a path where justice and progress converge. Let us find it before Christmas". (PIA)