Alberto Jayme, chairman of the farmers’ group Task Force Mapalad, said he and other agrarian reform beneficiaries have been waiting long enough for the government to give them their rightful share of agricultural land.
“Kahit mahirap [ang pagmamartsa], tinitiis namin para singilin sa kanyang pangako ang ating Pangulo,” he said in a “Balitanghali” report aired Sunday.
The Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP), enacted in 1988, was tagged as the “centerpiece program” of Aquino’s mother, the late President Corazon Aquino. Its implementation was extended in 2009 for another five years under Republic Act No. 9700 or CARP extension with reforms (CARPER).
Elvira Maglinti, a farmer in her 70s, said she continues to fight for agrarian reform despite her old age for the sake of her family.
“Sinisikap ko ang paglaban para sa aking mga anak at apo,” she said.
At the DAR’s office in Quezon City, the farmers were met by farmers’ groups from Mindanao, which separately staged their own protest.
On Monday, the groups plan to hold a dialogue with DAR officials regarding the status of the government’s land distribution plans.
Pass GARB, not CARP extension
In a statement, Kabataan party-list Rep. Terry Ridon called on Congress to pass the Genuine Agrarian Reform Bill (GARB) instead of approving another bill further extending the CARP until June 2015.
The lawmaker said that based on DAR’s data, almost 95 percent of the estimated 900 million hectares of land that has not yet been distributed as of the second half of 2013 is comprised of private agricultural lands, of which 75 percent are plantation and hacienda-type farms located in 25 different provinces.
“Despite its touted achievements, CARP and its extension law has accomplished close to nothing. Clearly, there is no need for Congress to pass another extension law,” Ridon said.
House Bill 252, which is pending in the House committee on agrarian reform, seeks the swift and free distribution of land to peasants and farmers and the nationalization of lands operated by transnational corporations and expropriation of commercial farms.
Last May, the Justice Department expressed support for HB 4296, which aims to extend the land acquisition and distribution component of CARP for another year.
In a letter last month, Justice Secretary Leila De Lima told Ifugao Rep. Teddy Brawner Baguilat Jr., chairman of the House committee on agrarian reform, that the Justice Department “finds no legal and constitutional objection to the proposed bill… in order to fully achieve the ultimate objective of the Constitution on [the] agrarian reform program.” — Xianne Arcangel/BM, GMA News
