MANILA, Philippines—Proponents of agrarian reform will face off when Congress resumes its session two weeks from now.

Albay Rep. Edcel Lagman and Akbayan party-list Rep. Risa Hontiveros said on Sunday they would continue their push for House Bill 4077 which seeks to extend the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) for five years and give it a P100-billion budget.
But Anakpawis party-list Rep. Rafael Mariano said HB 4077 could not be used to revive a “dead program” and urged Lagman and Hontiveros to throw their support behind House Bill 3059, a more radical bill proposing the free distribution of all agricultural land.

CARP expired on Dec. 31, Mariano said. A resolution was passed extending the voluntary land transfer portion of the program for six months but this was not signed by the President before the end of last year.

Conflicting views

In a statement, Lagman said the President’s decision not to sign the resolution before CARP lapsed “amounted to a veto” since a dead program could not be extended. He said his bill should be converted into one renewing the land reform program.

The joint resolution was denounced by farmers and several lawmakers, including Lagman and Hontiveros, because it did away with the compulsory acquisition of private land under the CARP’s Land Acquisition and Distribution (LAD) component.

Compulsory acquisition is considered the “heart and soul” of the program, Lagman said.

“The legislative agenda should now concentrate on the revival of the LAD by enacting the original HB 4077 principally authored by Lagman and previously certified as an urgent measure by the President,” Lagman said in his statement.

But according to Mariano, HB 4077 could not be converted into a LAD revival measure to resurrect the expired CARP. He said Lagman’s suggestion “appears to be an attempt to shortcut the legislative process.”

“The sham CARP already expired. They should file a new agrarian reform bill, let it go through the legislative process, and not simply convert HB 4077 into a substitute bill,” he said in his statement Sunday.

CARP not expired

But Sen. Aquilino Pimentel and some Cabinet secretaries disagreed that the CARP had already expired.

“Only the funding for the land acquisition and distribution (LAD) component of CARP expired last Dec. 31,” said Pimentel.

However, he agreed that the Department of Agrarian Reform could not implement the compulsory acquisition portion of the program without funding.

In a Dec. 10, 2008 memorandum to President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez said there was a need to enact new legislation to address the expiration of funding.

Agrarian Reform Secretary Nasser Pangandaman agreed with Pimentel. “Only the funding for the LAD expired, but not the program. It’s a continuing program,” he told the Philippine Daily Inquirer in a phone interview.

Not a veto, either

As for the House resolution extending the voluntary portion of the program for six months, it will lapse into law 30 days after it is received by the President, or by Jan. 22, Pimentel said.

Whether the President signs it or not, it has the “effect of a law,” added Pimentel, who supported the resolution.

“There is an opinion that joint resolutions don’t need further action by the President because it’s simply an expression of a desire, or a policy statement emanating from Congress,” he said.

But while it has the “effect of the law,” the resolution should not stop senators and congressmen from “amending the agrarian reform program with a proper bill,” the senator said.

Pangandaman said he would ask Congress to clarify what the DAR could do with the LAD in view of the congressional joint resolution extending CARP for six months from Dec. 31.

The Dec. 17 resolution allows only the distribution of land through voluntary offers to sell, and voluntary land transfers, and excludes compulsory land acquisition and distribution.

With the eventual passage of the 2009 national budget, Pangandaman said the department would have funds at its disposal to acquire and distribute lands under the voluntary offer to sell, and voluntary land transfer modes.

More radical alternative

“But we will clarify with Congress what we can do or not do with the compulsory land acquisition and distribution” he added.

Mariano repeated his appeal to his colleagues to bury CARP, which he had described as an ineffective program.

“We earnestly appeal to the House leadership and Rep. Lagman to give up the idea of trying to salvage a dead CARP abandoned by Ms Arroyo herself,” said.

The bill supported by Mariano, HB 3059, would put in place an agrarian reform program covering all agricultural lands, without exemption and exclusion. Its main goal is free distribution of lands to farmers within five years from the effectivity of the measure.

Aside from Mariano, the other authors of HB 3059 are Bayan Muna party-list representatives Satur Ocampo and Teodoro Casiño and Gabriela representatives Liza Maza and Luzviminda Ilagan.