5-year extension of Carp sought

Two lawmakers are seeking a five-year extension of the agrarian reform law expiring in June 2014, saying the Aquino administration is far from meeting its objectives of completing land acquisition and distribution.

The House bill that would extend to 2019 as well as strengthen the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (Carp), filed last month by Representatives Rufus Rodriguez of Cagayan de Oro and his brother Maximo of Abante Mindanao, has been referred to the committee on agrarian reform.

In their explanatory note to House Bill No. 6614, the lawmakers said the program had yet to fully meet its objectives 25 years after it was implemented by President Aquino’s mother, democracy icon Corazon Aquino.

For example, the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) is far from fulfilling its 2012 target of processing 180,000 hectares of land and has been able to process just a little over 32,000 ha, according to the lawmakers.

The DAR plans to acquire 17,524 ha of land under leasehold agreements this year, but latest figures show it has  processed only 7,724 ha.

“These are just some of the data that will show that the work of the DAR is far from finished. There is still more to be done, which makes it necessary to extend the life of the DAR and the effectivity of the Carp law,” the Rodriguez brothers said.

In their bill, the lawmakers want the Carp with reforms law, or Carper, to be extended until June 30, 2019. The law expires on June 30, 2014.

3 phases

The bill mandates the DAR and the Presidential Agrarian Reform Council to plan and program the acquisition and distribution of all the remaining unacquired and undistributed lands until 2019. The bill also provides new deadlines for the process in three phases.

In the first phase, all estates above 50 ha would have to be distributed by June 30, 2017, instead of 2012. These include all private agricultural lands of landowners with aggregate landholdings over 50 hectares; idle and abandoned lands; and all lands foreclosed by government financial institutions, acquired by the Presidential Commission on Good Government, or owned by the government and suitable for agriculture.

In the second phase, estates measuring 24 to 50 ha, alienable and disposable public agricultural lands, arable agricultural lands already cultivated, and all public agricultural lands to be opened for new development and resettlement should be distributed by June 30, 2017, as well.

All other private agricultural lands, starting with large holdings, and then medium and small ones, have to be distributed by 2018 and 2019. Properties 10 ha  to 24 ha have to be distributed by 2018 instead of June 30, 2013, while those up to 10 ha have to be distributed by June 30, 2019.

The bill provides funding for the program until June 30, 2019.

On track

During a budget hearing in August, Agrarian Reform Secretary Virgilio de los Reyes said  some 322,000 ha were expected to remain undistributed by the end of the Carper law in June 2014, but he added that the process to distribute these to farmers would continue.

De los Reyes said the balance would cover landholdings with pending cases or unresolved technical problems.

To be able to continue distributing these properties beyond the Carper law,  the DAR would issue notices of coverage for these landholdings before the program ends, he said.

Under the Carper law, all landholdings with pending cases as of June 30, 2014, can still be processed even beyond that date, until the cases are terminated, according to De los Reyes.

Section 30 of the law states: “Any case and/or proceeding involving the implementation of the provisions of Republic Act No. 6657, as amended, which may remain pending on

June 30, 2014, shall be allowed to proceed to its finality and be executed even beyond such date.”

De los Reyes has been criticized by farmer and Church groups for incompetence for his failure to pursue the distribution of nearly 1 million ha of the nation’s prime agricultural lands barely a year and a half before the expiration of the program. Posters calling for his resignation are all over the DAR headquarters in Quezon City.

But De los Reyes insists he is on track in spite of the criticism.