Negros lawmakers bat for CARP extension with conditions

Negros lawmakers indicated yesterday that they are for the extension of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program but without the provisions on compulsory land acquisition and if reforms are included.

The principal focus of the Negros lawmakers is that resources should be concentrated on support services to help agrarian reform beneficiaries make their lands productive.

Rep. Genaro Alvarez (sixth district) said the other congressmen from the province – Rep. Jose Carlos Lacson (third), Julio Ledesma (first), Alfredo Marañon (second), Jeffrey Ferrer (fourth), and Ignacio Arroyo (fifth) – shared the same position that the CARP law should be extended but only if reforms are included.

The lone dissenter was Rep. Monico Puentevella, who reportedly said he would make up his mind on what position to take before Wednesday when the debate on the bill would be up for decision.

He considers it a “close call.” “Anything can happen,” he pointed out.

The Negros lawmakers reportedly held a caucus with House members on Wednesday. Many were of the same opinion that the CARL should be extended but only if reforms are included.

Arroyo added that a straw vote would be called in next Wednesday’s caucus.

Rep. Ferrer stressed that priority should be given to support services to ensure land productivity and the payment of properties acquired in the voluntary offer to sell.

Lacson, on the other hand, said that Wednesday’s caucus showed a strong opposition to the extension of CARL under its previous form.

He stressed that lawmakers were vocal about the need to use CARP funds to enhance productivity. He noted that the study of Negros Occidental shows that 40 percent of agrarian reform beneficiaries no longer till the land given to them by the government.

The reason, Lacson added, is the lack of funds and support to make them work gainfully on their land.

“Congress will definitely extend CARP. As to what it will be like, I hope it will be truly land reform that will benefit the agricultural sector and the marginalized farmers,” stressed Lacson.

Lately, groups of farmers have been marching in Negros Occidental to demand the extension of CARP. Most of them are members of Task Force Mapalad and other militant organizations.

Strangely, Bayan and other left-wing groups have been advocating the scrapping of CARP, pointing out that it has failed to help the beneficiaries.

Nenita Parafina, an ARB of Hacienda Mandayao in La Castellana, Negros Occidental, recently put out a letter denouncing CARP as having failed to deliver social justice, poverty eradication and rural development as “major tenets to human rights.”

She said, “We forced ourselves to cultivate the land and produce. Days, months and years after that piece of land was awarded to us, it was not in our possession anymore. Majority of our lands were leased. Others sold their rights, many found themselves heavily indebted to usurers and collaterals with high interest rates.

“We have become again workers and laborers in our land, but this time with no security of tenure, without social security benefits that a regular worker avails (himself of),” she said.

“We are forced to let our children share our burdens. Many of our children had stopped schooling to work in the farm,” added Mrs. Parafina, a member of Magwayan, an ARB Action Center in Bacolod City.

Well, the reality on the ground is far different from the positive claims of the DAR and the administration.

Secure jail gates – Gov. Zayco

Negros Occidental Gov. Isidro Zayco has ordered the provincial jail warden to tighten security and observe strict regulations in admitting visitors, especially in restricted areas such as the conjugal room.

This, after a 16-year-old girl claimed before the Bacolod police that she had been raped by a trustee of the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology while helping an inmate’s wife with some household chores in the conjugal section of the provincial jail on Wednesday.

Parents of the 16-year-old girl are pressing charges against the suspect for molesting their daughter inside the jail.

Arly Somalde, the suspect, has been in jail for a rape case since 1998. He was given the trustee status and has been staying in the jail compound with his wife.

The girl claimed that she was helping do the laundry of Somalde’s wife when the incident happened. She was not able to scream for help because the inmate overpowered her and covered her mouth,

Somalde is now posted at the maximum security barracks, according to jail warden Marcos Ybañez.

ADDENDUM. The good news: Negros Occidental will receive additional policemen with the graduation of 260 police recruits who graduated from the Police Basic Recruits Course of Region 6. The group will be in addition to the 241 policemen and policewomen who enrolled in the Special Counter-Insurgency Course Training at Camp Aniceto Lacson in Victorias City.