Saturday, July 21, 2007 Agrarian reform program’s fate known during Sona on Monday: agri chief By Nicolas C. Delfin
THE fate of the controversial Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (Carp) might be announced on Monday when President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo delivers the State of the Nation Address (Sona).
This revealed by Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap during his visit in Bacolod and Bago on Friday.
Yap said, "It is better for everybody to wait whatever will be the mandate of President Arroyo on Carp." This as Yap also respects the call of Negros chief executives for the review and audit of the program before extending it beyond 2008.
"It would be best if we try to know whatever the mandate would be as soon as she (President Arroyo) delivers the Sona on Monday," Yap said, adding, "I believed she will surely have to address the Carp problem."
But during the President's visit in Negros on July 13, the lady chief executive had already stressed that in due respect of her father, the later former president Diosdado Macapagal-Arroyo, she will seek for Carp's extension but said that it will still largely depend on Congress whether or not to allow its extension.
The Negros legislators who are also supporting Governor Joseph Marañon's call for Carp review and audit, said they respect the decision of the President on Carp, but stressed that they would only be amenable for an extension of the program unless DAR (Department of Agrarian Reform) will submit to Congress the entire report of Carp implementation with its present status.
