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Friday, June 23, 2006
SRA, MBBCI add up to calls to review CARP
By Ma. Ester L. Espina and Antonieta B. Lopez
THE Sugar Regulatory Administration together with the Metro Bacolod Chamber of Commerce has added its voice to the various groups clamoring for a complete assessment of the comprehensive agrarian reform program (CARP).
SRA administrator James Ledesma said Thursdayt while he does not want to comment on whether or not CARP failed as a national program intended to uplift the lives of the sugar workers, he is looking at things at an industry standpoint, particularly on "sugar as a plantation crop."
"Dividing the land in small parcels greatly affect the productivity of any plantation crop and this runs counter to the implementation of CARP," said Ledesma.
Allegations of failure among farmer beneficiaries to repay their amortization as well as the difficulty of the local government to collect taxes from them adds up to the problem, he added.
On the other hand, businessman Roberto Montelibano said their call for an immediate review is "very basic and necessary as this involves national interest."
Montelibano, president of the Metro Bacolod Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said they are supporting Gov. Joseph Maranon's call for a serious assessment to "determine any program defect and device means to correct it; identify areas of satisfactory performance but can stand improvement; and speed-up or expand implementation of the process that is working perfectly."
He urged the Department of Agrarian Reform, particularly the provincial and municipal agrarian reform officers, to sit down with the various stakeholders for a collective assessment amid "obvious shortcomings" such as the "lack of managerial capabilities" among farmer beneficiaries and the lack of financial and technical assistance to the farmer-beneficiaries in order to make their areas sustainable and productive.
The MBCCI chair also said DAR must immediately resolve the more than 60,000 cases pending before them, mostly questioning just compensation to land owners.
These problems, Montelibano added, has had "adverse effects" like deterioration of infrastructures, low productivity and more importantly, "the beneficiaries are not uplifted socially and economically (as) many of these land (areas) already distributed are not anymore cultivated by the original beneficiaries."
Meanwhile, the Tripartite Industrial Peace Council of Negros Occidental also unanimously passed a resolution recently urging President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo to call for a comprehensive CARP assessment in view of the problems besetting its implementation.
"Unless and until these problems are addressed and solutions are proposed and put in place, there can be no real and effective industrial peace as a vehicle in promoting national growth, development and social justice," the council said, as represented by its chairman Reynaldo Novero Sr.
(June 23, 2006 issue)
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