MANILA, Philippines ? There is hope that the ?heart and soul? of the agrarian reform program may yet be restored.
According to Albay Rep. Edcel Lagman, a joint panel of members of the House of Representatives and the Senate has agreed to put back the compulsory acquisition of private agricultural land into a bill extending the life of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) for another five years.
?This is a breakthrough,? Lagman said, adding that the consensus among legislators who attended the meeting was ?clear and firm.?
The CARP, the land redistribution scheme mandated by the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Law of 1988, or RA 6657, expired in December 2008.
Last December, Congress passed a joint resolution extending the CARP for six more months, or until June 2009, to allow the Department of Agrarian Reform to complete the land distribution process.
The resolution, however, removed the compulsory acquisition component from the CARP law?s land distribution provision, to universal protest from farmers? and church groups.
The reason given was to allow lawmakers to study the possibility of giving the program a longer life.
The Senate and the House each came up with proposals to extend CARP for five years, and formed the joint panel to discuss the CARP extension bill during Congress? month-long recess that began earlier this month.
The panel was to hold talks to come up with a draft CARP law acceptable to both chambers during the recess so that when sessions resume, there will be less debate and discussions and the bill would have a greater chance of being passed sooner, Lagman said.
The joint panel meeting yesterday agreed to work on fast-tracking the bill?s passage.
?Time is of the essence?
Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile said the Senate and the House would each organize a technical working group that would seek the participation of concerned sectors ?so that we can come up with a common version, if possible.?
Lagman said he expected the bill to be approved before Congress goes on another recess in June.
Enrile said he believed the Senate and the House were ?of one mind to pass the law before we go on sine die adjournment in June.?
?Time is of the essence. We can?t dribble this because it?s the country and the welfare of the people which is at stake here,? he said.
Lagman, who joined farmers? groups in protesting the removal of the compulsory acquisition provision, said the land reform program would not really work without this component.
Compulsory acquisition
Without compulsory acquisition, the only way that farmers can acquire land would be through voluntary land transfer (VLT) and voluntary offer to sell (VOS), which essentially leaves everything up to the owners of the land, he said.
Lagman cited data from the Department of Agrarian Reform showing that since the start of the CARP law?s six-month extension last January, no application has been made for the voluntary transfer or sale of land.
This shows that without compulsory acquisition, CARP would not be able to help farmers in acquiring land, he said.
?This validates the apprehension that the remaining landowners resisting coverage will not avail themselves of VOS and VLT, and therefore the need for compulsory acquisition as the major, if not the only mode, of acquiring and distributing private agricultural lands,? he said.
Under the bill, agricultural land with an area of 50 hectares and up would be given top priority for compulsory acquisition and redistribution.
Safeguards against land parceling
The bill also provides safeguards to prevent the parceling of lands to avoid coverage under the CARP, Lagman said.
?We will prioritize putting in safeguards so those landowners whose properties are not yet covered won?t take advantage so that they will not be covered,? added Enrile.
Asked whether the legislators had agreed to the P147-billion budget for the five-year CARP extension suggested by farmers? groups, Enrile said the amount was the ?benchmark.?
Depending on the outcome of the discussions, it could be higher or lower, he said. With a report from Christine Avendańo
Related story:
House, Senate bodies agree on CARP
