Tuesday, October 02, 2007 92 percent of Carp beneficiaries in NegOcc nowhere to be found By Jerome S. Galunan Jr.
OF the 111,752 beneficiaries of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (Carp) in Negros Occidental, 92 percent are nowhere to be found now, a report from Capitol revealed.
Atty. Jose Ma. Valencia, concurrent Provincial Legal Officer and Chief of Staff of Governor Joseph Marañon, said that based on their findings in the first phase of their investigation on Carp issue, it showed that only eight percent of the 111,752 beneficiaries or 8,795 are still on their lands.
The rest or 92 percent of the Carp beneficiaries are no longer owners of the lot awarded to them, Valencia said.
These people may have left their lands by selling their rights of ownership or have sold their lands back to the original owners, Valencia said.
He said they also discovered that those beneficiaries who mad partnerships with their former employers have better outputs than those who do farming on their own.
Among the beneficiaries that are still in their areas are 665 in the 1st district, 4,134 in the 2nd district, 420 in the 3rd district, 562 in the 5th district and 3,014 in the 6th district.
On the other hand, only 59 percent or 36,039 hectares of granted Carp lands were tilled while the 25,336 hectares or 41 percent remain untilled.
Records showed that District 4 topped the list of the areas remained untouched and of the 53.95 percent or 6,450 of the 11,955 lands therein only 5,505 were cultivated.
In 5th district, about 48.69 percent remain untilled or a total of 6,015 of the 12,352 hectares granted to the beneficiaries.
Valencia also added that they will be completing the second phase of the investigation in the next two weeks of October.
He said that they’ve already asked the Land Bank of the Philippines (LBP) for the list of beneficiaries who are still paying for the mortgages of the lands awarded to them.
However, the bank refused to provide the list invoking confidentiality and said that they want to seek clearance first from the head office.
Valencia though contested that the documents they are asking from LBP are for public interest so these must be made available to the public.
Valencia said it is unfair for the government to pay the LBP for the mortgages of the Carp beneficiaries.
