Win-win CARP solution sought
By Michael Lim Ubac, TJ Burgonio
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 03:23:00 12/26/2008
Filed Under: Agrarian Reform, Congress, Unrest and Conflicts and War, Laws
MANILA, Philippines—Malacañang and Congress should find a “win-win solution” to the agrarian reform unrest still hounding the countryside 20 years after the enactment of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) which promised land to the landless.
“It can be done and it should be done,” opposition Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano said in a text message.
When asked to react to the recommendation of Agrarian Reform Secretary Nasser Pangandaman to President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, Cayetano said: “It doesn’t matter if she signs the joint resolution or lets it lapse into law. What’s more important is—is it a good resolution? Is it the best that the executive and legislative can come up with? Far from it.”
Cayetano reminded his colleagues in the upper chamber and House of Representatives that it was their duty as legislators to come up with a law that would truly “emancipate the farmers from the bondage” of the soil and tenancy.
Good intentions
“The resolution, I think, started out with good intentions then ended up very much watered down. But nothing will stop both houses of Congress from passing a new CARP law this January or February,” he said.
Agrarian reform advocates are asking Pangandaman to clarify his recommendation to President Arroyo on the joint resolution extending the CARP.
Pangandaman has recommended that the President not sign the joint resolution, and just allow it to lapse. But a Malacañang official, who asked not to be named, said the Secretary wanted it to lapse into law.
After receiving the resolution, Ms Arroyo has the option to approve or veto it, or not sign it. If it remains unsigned after 30 days, it will just lapse into law, the official said.
The resolution extends CARP by six months upon expiration on Dec. 31 this year, but drops the compulsory acquisition and distribution of land, the “heart and soul” of the program.
“He should clarify his recommendation. Does he want it to lapse into law?” said Christian Monsod, legal counsel for the farmers’ group Task Force Mapalad, in a phone interview.
Pangandaman could not be reached for comment again Thursday.
SC option
If Ms Arroyo doesn’t sign the resolution, then it doesn’t have the effect of a law. But if it were allowed to lapse into law, agrarian reform advocates have no choice but to question it before the courts, Monsod said.
“We will go to the Supreme Court to strike it down as unconstitutional. It is unconstitutional because it converts agrarian reform program into an optional program,” he said.
The resolution has stirred a furor among farmers and agrarian reform advocates, who charged that this virtually amends the CARP by modifying land distribution from compulsory to optional.
Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita said on Wednesday that the resolution has the effect of a law because it has gone through the regular legislative process of approving a bill.
Albay Rep. Edcel Lagman, for his part, has asked President Arroyo to veto the joint resolution. With a report from Joanna P. Los Baños, Inquirer Southern Luzon
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