BELIEVING that the bill seeking the extension of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) would not be approved before Congress adjourns sine die on June 13, a militant legislator proposed a compromise that before going on break, Congress should reaffirm the Department of Agrarian Reform’s budget for 2008.

This, according to party-list Rep. Teodoro Casino of Bayan Muna, will allay fears that the program will stop without the extension of the bill.

“Anyway, the deadline is about to lapse tomorrow, so Congress can just say that it will last till December so we can still talk about it seriously within the next six months. And to allay those fears Congress can just say that there is a budget until the end of the year and within that time we can come up with a law,” Casiño told the BusinessMirror in a telephone interview.

“This will give us six more months from July to December to work out the approval of a genuine agrarian-reform bill.”

Roman Catholic bishops, meanwhile, are set to hold a Mass today, Tuesday, near Malacañang in a last-ditch effort to urge legislators to approve the extension of the 20-year-old CARP, which is ending today.

A church source said Manila Archbishop Gaudencio Cardinal Rosales or Cagayan de Oro Archbishop Antonio Ledesma may officiate the Mass, which is expected to be attended by other prelates, farmers’ groups and legislators supportive of the CARP extension.

The Mass is to be held at 10 a.m. at the National Shrine of St. Michael and the Archangels, on San Miguel Street near Malacañang.

President Arroyo certified the bill extending CARP as urgent, but it has yet to be followed through by both houses of Congress as they near recess this week.

Organized by the National Rural Congress Committee of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP), those attending the Mass seek to appeal to legislators to heed calls from farmers and the bishops for the CARP extension before they go on recess.

CBCP president Archbishop Angel Lagdameo said the bishops support moves to have the CARP extended “in principle” if both houses of Congress could not act on the bill before the deadline.  “We agree to have the CARP extended in principle and the funds held until the reforms are in place,” Lagdameo told Church-run Radio Veritas Monday.

Lagdameo also belied statements by Sen. Joker Arroyo blaming bishops for the Senate’s failure to act on the CARP extension bill due to the prelates’ non-attendance during hearings.

“What I know is Bishop Broderick Pabillo attends the hearings as our representative. There’s no need for us to show our numbers, we’ve signed a statement that was sent to them,” added Lagdameo.

Pabillo, the auxiliary bishop of Manila and the head of the CBCP’s social action arm, earlier questioned President Arroyo’s sincerity in certifying the CARP extension bill as urgent, saying this was “too late.”

Casiño is pushing for the approval of House Bill 3059, or the “Genuine Agrarian Reform Act,” filed by the militant bloc in the House of Representatives.

But Speaker Prospero Nograles said he remains highly optimistic  the CARP extension law will be passed by the House within the week and hopes  the Senate will likewise give the CARP a new lease on life.

Nograles stressed, however, that the expected approval by the House is just halfway the entire legislative process because “we still have the Senate to contend with.”   The Senate has yet to start committee deliberations on the proposed CARP extension.

Rafael Mariano, chairman of the Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas, and who is set to replace the seat vacated by the late party-list Rep. Crispin Beltran of Anakpawis, said that even if the CARP is not extended, farmers will not mourn its death.

“The bogus CARP miserably failed because like past agrarian-reform programs, it mainly caters to the interests of big landlords and foreign agrocorporations to maintain monopoly and control over vast tracts of land,” Mariano said.

DOMESTIC manufacturers will be seeking an official scrutiny of the books of accounts of the Manila Electric Co. (Meralco), independent power producers (IPPs) and other power industry players by the Commission on Audit (COA) to determine who among them are really making huge profits and are to be blamed for high power costs.

THE national government estimates that there is at least $3.76 billion worth of projects in the pipeline for funding by the World Bank (WB) from 2008 to 2010 and the Asian Development Bank (ADB) in 2008 and 2009.

THE Philippines has underscored the crucial role that can be played by biotechnology in resolving the food-security problem confronting nations all over the world during the food summit organized by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization in Italy.

BELIEVING that the bill seeking the extension of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) would not be approved before Congress adjourns sine die on June 13, a militant legislator proposed a compromise that before going on break, Congress should reaffirm the Department of Agrarian Reform’s budget for 2008.

THE board of the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) has overturned its previous policy giving full blanket authority to the secretary of labor to approve the renewal of license of manpower agencies sending Filipino labor abroad.

THE Delegation of the European Commission in the Philippines (EC) has urged Philippine exporters to its member-states to register chemical substances contained in their products to be able to qualify for the new rules adopted on June 1.

SEMIRARA ISLAND, Antique—Amid opposition and issues raised by environmental groups against the use of coal to fuel power generating facilities, the Department of Energy admits that removing coal-fired power plants in the generation mix could result in power shortages.