Farmers lambast Speaker Nograles and other solons
For obstructing CARP extension
By ED SESTOSO
Farmers in Negros Oriental are joining their national counterparts in lambasting House Speaker Prospero Nograles and other members of Congress for “blocking” the extension of the government’s Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program whose legal existence is set to expire at the end of next month.
Eugene Quirante, liaison officer for Negros Oriental of the Centro Saka, Incorporated said Speaker Nograles and his big landlord-cohorts should be held accountable if Congress fails to approve the passage of the CARP extension with reforms bill (or HB 4077) before funding for the program expires on June 10, 2008 .
Just recently, farmer groups were elated when House Bill 4077 was finally presented at the plenary level.
Quirante’s group hailed the move of Representatives Edcel Lagman, Eduardo Joson, and AKBAYAN Party-List Rep. Risa Hontiveros-Baraquel who delivered their sponsorship speeches in support the bill which was then approved by the House Committee on Agrarian Reform as the consolidated version of the bills on CARP extension with reforms.
HB 4077 contains significant reform measures such as the provision of subsidized credit for agrarian reform beneficiaries, the recognition of women as program beneficiaries and the provision of gender-responsive support services, the recognition of the indefeasibility of emancipation patents and certificates of land ownership awards, upholding of the Department of Agrarian Reform’s exclusive jurisdiction on agrarian-related disputes, upholding of the legal standing and interest of beneficiaries and the creation of a Joint Congressional Oversight Committee.
Quirante said that it was a product of a long and extensive process of consultations conducted by the Committee among the agrarian reform stakeholders.
But Quirante said that the jubiliation is turning out to be short-lived.
They said that another bill House Bill 3972 contains various anti-social justice provisions that are obviously meant to obstruct the passage of HB 4077 and block the continued implementation of the agrarian reform program.
House Bill 3972 was filed by Rep. Pablo Garcia along with Representatives Iggy Arroyo, Alfredo Maranon III, Jeffrey Ferrer, Philip Pichay, and Rep. Ramon Durano VI, among others.
Quirante said that the authors of House Bill 3972 are masquerading as a pro-farmer and that the bill itself, is actually promoting agricultural tenancy which has already been rejected by various administrations a long time ago.
“The Garcia bill is also pushing for the implementation of the Joint Venture Agreement, an agribusiness venture arrangement that would strengthen the big landlords¢ control over their lands and reverse the gains already achieved under the agrarian reform program” Quirante further elaborated.
Quirante who is also the lead convenor of the Negros Farmers Council said that the Garcia bill seems to indicate that Congress, under the leadership of Speaker Nograles, has no sense of responsibility when it comes to issues affecting the most marginalized sectors of society.
“Nograles and his cohorts appear to have no appreciation of the social justice and social reform agenda and instead of upholding a program that would benefit and uplift the lives of thousands of impoverished farmers, these supposedly honorable gentlemen seems to have chosen to merely protect the interests of a few, influential, big landowners” Quirante further stressed.
Earlier, House Speaker Nograles promised the Catholic bishops and the farmers that he would help hasten the passage of the CARP extension bill and even include substantial reforms.
“But his failure to make good on his words shows that he has merely been politicking just to appease the swelling anger of the farmers” Quirante commented.
The group also slams top officials of the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR), the very agency mandated to implement the agrarian reform program, did not even show up during the period of sponsorship and plenary debates.
“Their absence speaks volumes about their low regard for the urgency of the proposed measures” the NFC leader said.
Home 
Mon May 26, 2008 9:24 pm