Aquino asked to back extension of CARP coverage

Ifugao Rep. Teodoro Baguilat PHOTO FROM CONGRESS.GOV.PH

MANILA, Philippines—The chair of the House agrarian reform committee has gone to President Aquino for help to ensure that some 260,000 hectares of agricultural lands can still be distributed even beyond the deadline of the extended Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP).

Ifugao Rep. Teddy Baguilat called on the President to certify as urgent a bill that would allow agrarian reform officials to issue notices of coverage (NOC) for landholdings beyond the June 30, 2014, deadline prescribed under the law.

Under the proposed law, lands covered by NOCs could still be distributed after the CARP ceases to be. The law also states that all landholdings with pending cases can still be processed beyond June 30, 2014.

Baguilat said moving the deadline would mean that more private and government lands that were not among those targeted for coverage by the DAR could still be included in CARP’s coverage, in order to complete the constitutional mandate for agrarian reform.

The Ifugao lawmaker said he was constrained to go to Aquino because of the Department of Agrarian Reform’s failure to submit a proposal to amend the CARP extension law so that it can issue more NOCs.

He said that at a hearing last March 5 he had asked the DAR to submit a proposed amendment to the CARP extension law that would extend the issuance of NOCs beyond June 30, 2014.

He said DAR Undersecretary Anthony Parungao had himself disclosed that the department needed more time to issue NOCs, because the process had been delayed by missing or problematic land titles. Land titles are necessary before the notices can be distributed.

“DAR, it seems, has no sense of urgency to complete the agrarian reform program. I am having serious reservations about DAR’s plans on how to fulfill its constitutional mandate for agrarian reform,” Baguilat said in a statement.—Leila B. Salaverria