Wednesday, April 25, 2007 CARP is useless, says senatoriable Joker Arroyo By Ma. Ester L. Espina
WITHOUT mincing any words, reelectionist Senator Joker Arroyo said any moves to extend the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) should be stopped.
"It is finished, it has outlived its usefulness," Arroyo said, adding that while he has heard of moves to extend the program beyond 2008, "I am not agreeable to that, I will personally oppose it."
Arroyo joined the ranks of senatorial candidates together with Tessie Aquino-Oreta who believed that the CARP has been a failure and has not really uplifted the lives of the people, particularly the farmer beneficiaries who have availed of land under the program.
The program, which was implemented as a social justice tool under the administration of then President Corazon Aquino, has already been extended twice and will end in 2008.
The Department of Agrarian Reform has been lobbying for another extension of five years in Congress.
However, Arroyo said there are "empirical evidences, which unfortunately showed that those who have been given land had given up ownership and sold them back to the landowners."
Oreta on the other hand said, "There must be a study to look into where we are in so far as the program implementation is concerned adding that the first question should be whether it actually benefited the farmers."
She added that if proven none, government should find another alternative to help the farmers through other livelihood programs that could be beneficial to them rather than simply land distribution.
Even while he is running under the administration ticket, Arroyo was quick to voice his opposition to some of the programs being pushed by the President, particularly Charter change and the continuing issue on extrajudicial killings.
In a press conference at the Business Inn, Arroyo said while he is with Team Unity, he has maintained his "independence," but added that this is also because, "the Team Unity is not monolithic, it allows dissenting opinions and we are very liberal in accepting each one's position on issues."
"You will be surprised to know that our bonding is very strong and we continue to help each other in our sorties," Arroyo said, adding that he has no idea whether this is the same position taken by the opposition line-up "or whether they pursue the fascist idea that no one deviates from the line."
On the issue of extrajudicial killings, Arroyo said that while he condemns the acts committed and admitted that the situation has become "alarming," he nevertheless defended the government in saying that it has become a complex problem with no solution in sight as more and more killings are committed by hired professional assassins.
He said we should look at all killings as a serious matter and not only when its victims are journalists or activists.
"Anybody who is killed is a business of government and not only because they are journalists or leftists. We should not make any distinction because that is unfair," Arroyo said as he criticized international media and human rights organization "who descend here and clamor when journalists or a leftist gets killed. That kind of advocacy is wrong because any killing, committed to any victim, is a serious matter."
Arroyo who chairs the Senate Committee on Human Rights also threw back the question to the journalists as to what can government do to abate the increasing cases of extrajudicial killings particularly among the ranks of journalists.
When no one answered, Arroyo retorted, "You can't even give me one recommendation. And that is what makes it very alarming because government has not found a solution, and the citizenry can't find one too."
He said the fact that professional killers can do it for a few hundred thousands make extrajudicial killings much harder to solve.
He, however, admitted that there is some truth to allegations of military men responsible for some of the killings, but added that "so do the leftist."
The only difference, he said, is that since the military is government, "they can't commit any extrajudicial killings because they need to maintain high moral ground while the leftists can because that is what they have been doing in order to topple the government."
Joining the Team Unity sortie at the Panaad Park where they got the open endorsement of Governor Joseph Marañon and majority of the local officials, Arroyo said he is hoping that Negros will once again deliver votes for him.
"I was number five in Negros in the 2001 elections. Yet, I can't be presumptuous that is why I'm here to beg again for votes not only for me but for the entire
Team Unity," he said, adding, "that what the country needs now is unity. At the rate the Senate is going, we will continue to quarrel. We need to have peace, we need to have unity."
Asked whether he believes the administration's prediction of a 12-0 vote in favor of Team Unity, Arroyo simply retorted, "You don't expect me to cheer for the opposition."
