GMA urged to review CARP Law

Various labor organizations are asking President Arroyo for the immediate conduct of a comprehensive and serious review of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) and its implementation.

The call for a review of the agrarian reform program, whose implementation is scheduled to wind down in 2008, was contained in a letter to the President signed by leaders representing diverse groups such as National Congress of Unions in the Sugar Industry of the Philippines (Nacusip); Workers Amalgamated Union of the Philippines (WAUP); Philippine Agricultural Commercial and Industrial Workers Union (PACIWU); United Sugar Farmers Organization and Allied Services (USFO) Commercial, Agro-Industrial, Labor Organization (CAILO); and Trade Union of Filipino Workers (TUFW).

Also joining the call were HPCo. Supervisors Union, PACIWU, Hawaiian-Philippine Co.; FLO-ALU Nacusip-Biscom chapter; HPSWU-Nacusip, Hawaiian Philippine Co.; and PACIWU-Sonedco chapter.

The labor groups have joined others who have made a similar request on the President, including Negros Occidental Gov. Joseph Maranon, Metro Bacolod Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the Tripartite Industrial Peace Council (TIPC), Negros Occidental chapter.

The TIPC Negros Occidental chapter, in a resolution, recommended to the President a comprehensive review of the implementation of CARP under Republic Act 6657, and that pending said review, the program’s implementation be held in abeyance and the status quo be preserved.

The council noted the continuing conflict among those engaged in the implementation of CARP, resulting in bloody and violent confrontations, delayed payment of compensation to landowners, slow collection of amortization payments, lack of government support for beneficiaries to enable them to become self-reliant, improper distribution of lands on account of wrong priorities, and illegal acts committed by government agencies concerned.

It emphasized that unless and until these problems are addressed, there can be no real and effective industrial peace as a vehicle in promoting national growth, development, and social justice.

Earlier, Bacolod businessmen called for a serious assessment by the government of CARP, whose implementation period ends in 2008.

The Metro Bacolod Chamber of Commerce and Industry noted that a review of the status of CARP is in order, after 15 years of implementation and after distributing almost 100,000 hectares of arable land to agrarian reform beneficiaries involving close to P10 billion in government funds.

RA 8532 earlier extended the implementation of CARP for another 10 years, or until 2008. There are currently efforts in Congress calling for another round of extension.

MBCCI president Roberto Montelibano said this call for review is a very basic and necessary element for any undertaking that it involves national interest. The review aims to determine for any program defect and to device means to correct them, to identify areas of satisfactory performance, and to speed up or expand the implementation of the process that is working perfectly.

This review process, he emphasized, is the collective responsibility of all program stakeholders – beneficiaries, the Land Bank of the Philippines, the landowner, and the municipal and provincial agrarian reform officers – and each must commit to its success.

He pointed out that the PAROs and MAROs’ role in this review process is critical as they are in direct contact with and have personal knowledge of the land reform beneficiaries. "For having direct and intimate knowledge of the areas involved and the original occupant/workers and now are owner-tillers, the opinion of the PAROs and the MAROs, more than anybody else, counts in forming solutions that can correct the defects of the program," he added.

Montelibano noted that some of the more obvious shortcomings of the program are the lack of managerial capabilities of most beneficiaries, no technical assistance, limited financial assistance, the inadequacy of the land area per beneficiary to make for financially rewarding and economical farming, the 60,000 pending cases in the DAR Adjudication Board involving question of just compensation to landowners, and lands still owned in common by beneficiaries.

The businessmen’s group said that because of these shortcomings, the objectives of CARP were not achieved and adverse results followed. Among these are that the beneficiaries are not uplifted socially and economically, real property taxes of these lands have been in arrears for so long, the productivity of the land has greatly diminished, many of these lands are no longer being cultivated by the original beneficiaries, there is very limited loan repayment to Land Bank, and the infrastructure in general has deteriorated.