'House to decide on CARP extension in June'
House Speaker Prospero Nograles on Monday said the House of Representatives will decide on the proposed extension of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) before the current session adjourns on June 5.
What Nograles cannot assure is whether congressmen will favor farmers' call for the extension of compulsory land acquisition, the contentious component of CARP, which forces landowners to sell their lands to the government for distribution. Landowners inthe lower Houseare an influential force in Congress.
"While we have a commitment in support of the measure, it will be the plenary that will decide on the final form of the new CARP law. It is very important to note that President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo is supporting the CARP extension measure," Nograles said.
The CARP expired in June 2008 but was extended to December 2008. In its failure to enact a new law to replace CARP, Congress issued a joint resolution extending the law for another six months or until June 2009 to give them more time to deliberate on the measure.
However, Congress defied President Arroyo's recommendation to extend CARP in toto. Its joint resolution said only voluntary land transfers—not compulsory acquisition of private lands—are allowed during the six-month extension.
It was a move that disappointed farmer groups and their influential supporter, the Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines (CBCP). Many Catholic bishops had joined farmers on a hunger strike for CARP extension last year.
Advocates feared that the December 2008 voting was a preview of what will happen in June 2009.
Status of CARP
But according to a report by the House committee on agrarian reform, panels from both chambers of Congress—the Senate and the House of Representatives—have met with the CBCP at least three times since March.
These meetings are supposedly meant to make way for the two chambers to produce a common version of the CARP law that will be passed before session adjourns on June 6.
According to the report, among the issues the panels have resolved are the following:
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landowners' compensation need not be included in general legislation since this can be addressed by administrative action;
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revise the provision pertaining to gender-responsive support services;
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Technical Working Group to increase the funding allocation for CARP to P147 billion if the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) is able to substantiate the need for such amount.
The DAR was requested to provide the House committee on agrarian reform the exact amount earmarked for the payment of land owners, and to identify the lands which have been distributed but not yet paid or not yet documented.
The Presidential Commission on Good Governance was also asked to submit to the committee the receivables of the Agrarian Reform Fund (ARF) to ensure that funds would be enough to finance the five-year extension of the program.
New solons support CARP
Earlier, six new party-list representatives expressed support for the CARP extension, including its compulsory land acquisition component.
The lower House should focus on the CARP extension bill instead of spending "precious time" discussing Nograles' resolution seeking to change the 1987 charter and scrap its economic protectionist provisions such as lifting the ban on foreign ownership of land, said the statement by Akbayan Rep. Walden Bello, ARC Rep. Oscar Francisco, ABA-Ako Rep. Leonardo Montemayor, Amin Rep. Ariel Hernandez, Coop Natco Rep. Cresente Paez, and Abakada Rep. Jonathan dela Cruz.
"As newly-proclaimed party-list representatives, we will not be able to serve our full terms. With so little time remaining in our hands, we want to spend whatever precious time we have as members of the 14th Congress by pushing for the most critical pieces of reform legislation," the statement also said. ABS-CBN News