GMA assures Church leaders of support for CARP extension

MANILA, Philippines - President Arroyo has assured Church leaders of her support for the extension of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) with accompanying reforms for another five years.

Press Secretary Cerge Remonde said Mrs. Arroyo gave the assurance during a meeting with Church leaders led by Manila Archbishop Gaudencio Cardinal Rosales and Cebu Archbishop Ricardo Cardinal Vidal at Malacañang late Friday.

Rosales recently wrote a letter to the President, Speaker Prospero Nograles and Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile, urging them to work for the passage of the proposed bills extending the CARP with amendments for another five years.

Mrs. Arroyo, joined by Agrarian Reform Secretary Nasser Pangandaman and deputy executive secretary and head of the Presidential Legislative Liaison Office Joaquin Lagonera, told the Church leaders that she has always been in favor of extending the CARP.

Mrs. Arroyo said that she even wanted reforms to be included in the proposal extending the program.

Mrs. Arroyo pointed out that her father, the late President Diosdado Macapagal, started the agrarian reform program, and she wanted the legacy of her father to come to its fruition for the benefit of the country’s farmers.

Mrs. Arroyo, however, pointed out the initiative to extend the CARP remains with Congress, where the proposals to extend the program are still pending.

“The ball, insofar as the CARP is concerned, is not with Malacañang but with Congress. The problem of the Church is not with the President but with both houses of Congress,” Remonde said.

Mrs. Arroyo agreed to join the bishops in a dialogue with the leaders of Congress in order to discuss the pending extension of the CARP.

Remonde said the dialogue last Friday night was very successful and ended with a prayer led by the bishops.

The CARP ended last December with Congress failing to pass the bill that could have extended the program for another five years.

In order to keep the program running while Congress works on the passage of the bill, a joint resolution was passed in December extending the coverage of CARP for another six months.

However, the authors of the CARP extension bill, as well as the farmer stakeholders, criticized the joint resolution for not including a provision on compulsory land acquisition and distribution (LAD), which they said “is the heart and soul of the CARP.”

Responding to the grievances aired by the stakeholders and acting on the recommendation of Pangandaman, Mrs. Arroyo did not sign the joint resolution and allowed it to lapse into law.

That move was meant to send a message to all concerned parties that she still supports the original proposal to extend the CARP for six months with the LAD provision, Remonde said.