Farmers throw snails at House office to protest Carp extension delay

MANILA, Philippines–At least a dozen farmers from Negros Occidental threw snails on Tuesday at the House of Representatives to protest the delay in the plenary debates on a bill extending and reforming the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (Carp).

The farmers from Task Force Mapalad (TFM) were escorted out of the chamber after they threw snails wrapped up in gift paper at the office of the rules committee, which is tasked to schedule the plenary debates of pertinent legislation in Congress.

The farmers blamed committee chairman Majority Leader Neptali Gonzales II for refusing to schedule House Bill 4296 for sponsorship and plenary debate.

The said the bill seeks to extend for another two years the land acquisition and distribution component of the land reform program which expired in June last year. The bill seeks to extend and fund the Department of Agrarian Reform’s authority to issue notices of coverage and distribute these parcels of land to farmers up to June 30 next year.

The bill has been certified as urgent by President Aquino.

“The President has long endorsed the passage of the bill… Speaker (Feliciano Belmonte Jr.) had already spoken and assured farmers of its passage. So why is Gonzales not moving?” TFM-Negros president Alberto Jayme said in a statement.

“Gonzales’ refusal to move for the passage of HB 4296 is making landlord-politicians in Congress happy,” he added.

Gonzales maintained that the said bill was not part of the priority legislation in Congress.

He admitted there was resistance in the chamber to the passage of the bill.

The Carp is known as the landmark agrarian reform legislation under the Corazon Aquino administration, and its implementation was extended in 2009 for another five years under the law Carp extension with reforms, or Carper.