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The
decision of the House of Representatives Committee on
Agrarian Reform to endorse the extension of the
Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (Carp) by five
more years can mean five long years more of wasted money
that otherwise could have been spent on projects
directly benefiting the great unwashed, like cheaper
water for washing and drinking, and rainwater for
irrigation that could have long ago solved our farm
needs.
The Carp
is expiring on June 13 but there seems to be no tears of
joy for the intended beneficiaries or press releases
from farmer-organizations, unlike 20 years ago during
the incumbency of then-President Corazon Cojuangco
Aquino when Carp was enacted into law.
When it
was made into law, actually a revision of the original
land-reform program of former President Ferdinand E.
Marcos, the first beneficiary of Carp was no other than
the clan of Mrs. Aquino, not the farmers of Hacienda
Luisita.
There
was bloodshed all over, literally speaking, because when
protesting farmers and sympathizers went to the
presidential palace to ask for their emancipated lands,
they were met with troops loyal to the President with
intent to kill. They, in fact, massacred some of the
farmers and killed the remaining hopes of the survivors
and their families to acquire lands, whose origins had
long been questioned—from the time of the first
Philippine revolution.
That
gory scene repeated itself when, despite the presence of
an angry congressman-son named Noynoy Aquino, unnamed
terrorists blasted away, literally again, helpless
bodies snatched away by evil forces.
The five
years more of Carp will not solve the agrarian unrest
but will only bloat the national deficit, a good part of
which was originally money intended for the survivors of
the Marcos tyranny but found its way to the implementers
of Carp, not necessarily Carp itself.
Banks,
mostly privately owned, were in a way part of the
failure of Carp, because they were the ones that asked
for the amendment of the banking law that would have
provided at least 25 percent of their loan portfolios to
agrarian reform.
Instead,
banks were allowed to use a majority of the proceeds to
buy Treasury bills, otherwise known as the Jobo bills,
whose returns were skyrocketing and highly profitable,
at the expense of the borrowing public that lost homes
and cars in the process, having failed to pay
amortizations.
Rep.
Risa Hontiveros Baraquel of Akbayan recently identified
six haciendas said to be owned by the family and
relatives of President Arroyo that are yet to be
distributed to farmer-beneficiaries; they may never be
distributed, though, because these landholdings had been
converted through land conversion. You can tell that to
Mrs. Aquino, too.
Speaker
Prospero Nograles has promised that the Carp bill
awaiting the approval of the House would be “a better
version” because it would be “an opportunity for the
government to ensure that the benefits of development
will flow and reach the countryside” and ensure the
productivity of Filipino farmers.
The new
law, according to Nograles, will address the current
food crisis and the conversion of agricultural lands, as
it will “stop the decline of agricultural production.”
What may
be debatable is the provision in the proposed law that
the government would be given a P100-billion budget to
be used for land acquisition, distribution and other
“funding requirements.”
Part of
the P100-billion fund will come from the Assets
Privatization Fund, from the sale of the “ill-gotten
wealth” of Marcos which has yet to be established by the
courts, the money for victims of human-rights violations
during the time of Marcos and from the sale of
real-estate assets of the government in foreign
countries.
Don’t
get scared; have faith in your government.
E-mail: raulbvalino@yahoo.com.ph |
