Pass CARP-related bills, PNoy urged
March 5, 2015 | 4:33pm
MANILA, Philippines - Bishops on Thursday renewed their call to President Benigno Aquino III for the immediate passage of two pending bills in Congress regarding the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP).
Archbishop Rolando Tria Tirona said it is the duty of the government to make the agrarian reform work.
"Agrarian reform is a mandate s of the Constitution - to distribute all agricultural lands to the landless rural peasants, that means that the government has a duty to make it work," Archbishop Tirona said.
The prelate is one of the 74 bishops who signed in the appeal to President Aquino calling for the immediate passage of House Bill 4296 and House Bill 4375.
HB 4296 seeks to renew for two years the Department of Agrarian Reform's authority to issue notices of coverage and provide adequate funding for support services to agricultural landholdings that have not yet been placed under CARP.
Meanwhile, HB 4375 seeks to form an independent Agrarian Reform Commission to review the actual accomplishment of CARP and probe circumventions and violations of the CARP Law with a view to cause these landholdings to be redistributed to qualified beneficiaries.
HB 4375 does not have yet a counterpart measure in the Senate and such needs to be certified by the President as a priority measure.
"We will continuously appeal to the sense of justice and compassion of the President and the Congress. While we welcome his respect for subsidiary of government agencies, he is also duty-bound to directly look after the rights of the poor which must precede his decisions and actions," the archbishop said.
In June 2014, President Aquino certified as urgent the passage of HB 4296 but the House has yet to pass the supposedly priority bill on third and final reading eight months after the chief executive’s certification.
Last September, Senate has passed Senate Bill 2278 which would allow DAR to continue the acquisition and distribution of agricultural lands.
House Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. assured farmers of his unequivocal support to HB 4296's passage.
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