GMA orders more forced takeover of land

President Arroyo ordered yesterday more forced takeovers of private land for redistribution to farmers as part of agrarian reform and poverty eradication.

In a speech during the 39th anniversary of the state-owned Land Bank of the Philippines, which finances land redistribution, Mrs. Arroyo cited the entrenched opposition of landowners to voluntarily letting the government buy their property for land reform.

She said 250,000 hectares of land were redistributed to poor farmers last year, exceeding government targets.

"Of the 250,000 hectares of land we distributed, 18,000 hectares were distributed under compulsory acquisition. This is the highest level of compulsory acquisition since the start of land reform" in 1963, Mrs. Arroyo said.

"When you get it compulsorily, you do not wait for the landowner to sell the land," she said, adding, "this is an affirmation of political will."

"We should use compulsory acquisition, we should use the expropriation law and we should not wait for voluntary offers of sale," Mrs. Arroyo said.

She stressed that "land holdings covered in this mode are generally contentious land (areas) where landowner resistance is at its strongest."

The President did not say how much property would be acquired or how much such expropriation would cost.

Under the expropriation law, property owners are compensated for land needed for priority projects such as infrastructure. However, critics have complained that government compensation is usually late in coming, being doled out in tranches.

Mrs. Arroyo recalled it was her father, the late Pre-sident Diosdado Macapagal, who signed the land reform act into law in 1963 in a bid to address the glaring unequal distribution of land and wealth in this impoverished country. – AFP