ANGELES CITY, Philippines – Frankensteins.
That’s Anakpawis Rep. Fernando Hicap’s description of lawmakers behind the pending approval of a bill seeking to extend the ‘“already dead” Comprehensive Land Reform Program (CARP) Law.
“We hope that these congressmen who met with the President on the extension would be publicized so that poor farmers would know whom to blame for the dire consequences of extending CARP,” he said in a statement released yesterday.
Hicap said the House is set to approve on final reading House Bill 4296 seeking to extend the expired Republic Act 6657 or CARP before Congress goes into recess this June.
Hicap said the CARP law could not legally be extended since “it no longer exists” after it expired in June last year.
“We are reminding these lawmakers that they will be held responsible for their acts and should not evade accountability should farmers condemn them for the ill effects of CARP extension,” he said.
Hicap said farmers are prepared to challenge before the Supreme Court the CARP extension law if it is passed.
“We are not happy with the House committee on agrarian reform as the bills it tables are all connected with CARP, while our resolutions, including that which seeks to investigate the massive cancellations of agrarian reform awards to farmers, are being overlooked,” he said.
Anakpawis has been pushing House Bill 252 or the Genuine Agrarian Reform Bill since the 14th Congress, but the House committee on agrarian reform has yet to seriously deliberate on it.