House party caucus Wednesday over CARP
By Lira Dalangin-Fernandez
INQUIRER.net
First Posted 11:10:00 12/09/2008
Filed Under: Agrarian Reform, Laws, Congress
MANILA, Philippines -- Racing against time with barely two weeks left in session, the House of Representatives will hold an all-party caucus on Wednesday in a bid to arrive at a consensus on the extension of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP), two lawmakers said Tuesday.
Majority Floor Leader Arthur Defensor said the meeting of lawmakers from various political parties was expected to resolve the contentious issues on the law so that there would be less debates when it would be discussed on the floor.
He said plenary deliberations would be on December 16 and 17, with the 17th being the last day of session before Congress goes on Christmas break.
Akbayan partylist Representative Risa Hontiveros said she was hoping that the caucus would be able to thresh out the differences in the proposed amendments on the law's extension so that it could be passed before it expired on December 31.
But Hontiveros said floor debates should start this week to ensure that there would be enough time to discuss the measure.
Cagayan de Oro Representative Rufus Rodriguez made a request to Speaker Prospero Nograles to immediately start discussions.
In a phone interview, Defensor acknowledged that there were a number of "contentious" issues on the CARP extension and that he was expecting intense debates.
Among the proposals are a scheme to implement corporate farming, a revised compensation strategy for the land owners who would give up their land, and a review of the performance of the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) on land distribution as some groups are claiming that CARP has failed in its goal to increase productivity and alleviate the plight of the country's farmers, Defensor said.
The 20-year-old agrarian reform law, which had sought to free farmers from the bondage of the soil, expired on June 10.
But lawmakers in June adopted joint Resolution No. 21, with the Senate maintaining the land acquisition and distribution (LAD) component of the CARP until December 31.
The pending measure seeks to extend the LAD for five years from June 10 to cover the acquisition and distribution of at least 1.1 million hectares.
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