MANILA – The influential Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) disclosed it revived a group to closely monitor the implementation of a new law extending for another five years the government’s Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Programme (CARP).
Archbishop Angel Lagdameo of Jaro, Iloilo province in the Visayas and CBCP president, told a radio interview there is an urgent need to guard the implementation of Carp to ensure the allotted budget goes to the intended farmer-beneficiaries.
“â€Its implementation must be guarded in favor of the farmers,†Lagdameo emphasized. “The money allotted for it must be used with accountability and justice.â€
He revealed that to achieve this it revived a group, called “Sulong Carper (Forward, Carper),†to do the monitoring as well as guard against any law that might later be passed by Congress to water down the programme.
According to Lagdameo, the group also fought for the passage of the law extending Carp which was approved on August 7 by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.
Lagdameo’s message was echoed by Broderick Pabilo, the Manila auxiliary bishop and chairman of CBCP’s National Secretariat for Social Action Justice and Peace, who urged the public to be vigilant for the sake of the farmers.
Pabilo stressed the farmers deserve due importance because although they produce the food they are often neglected and often left to fend for themselves.
On Friday, President Arroyo signed the new Carp law in the historic town of Plaridel, Bulacan province in Central Luzon.
Malacanang said Plaridel is memorable because it was here where the President’s father, the late president Diosdado Macapagal, signed the original Agrarian Reform Code 46 years ago.
Under Macapagal’s prodding, Malacanang said Congress passed the law despite strong opposition from the landlords and their supporters who dominated especially the House of Representatives.
Despite its passage, however, the law could not be implemented because Congress refused to allocate funds for the purchase of agricultural land for redistribution to the farmers.
It was only in 1988 that a new law on Carp was signed by then president Corazon Aquino which allocated funds, including those to be recovered from the unexplained wealth of the late strongman Ferdinand Marcos and his cronies.
The Carp lapsed on December 30, 2008, which resulted in the passage in Congress of another law which extended the programme from 2009 until 2013.
The new law allocated the equivalent of $300 million for land acquisition and distribution, support services, agrarian justice delivery and other funding requirements during the extension period.
Under the new law, it covers all public and private agricultural lands, including other lands of the public domain which are deemed suitable for farming.
The same law provides for the creation of a joint congressional oversight committee to be composed of three members each from the Senate and the House.
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