Thursday, December 25, 2008 Ledesma: My Take By Jun Ledesma Sunbursts
MAYOR Rody Duterte does not want to spoil the fun during the annual Christmas party he tendered to members of the media. But even as he tried to hide his frustrations and his apprehensions he cannot help but take a jibe at controversial issues and some political characters which had contributed to our misery.
The mayor nevertheless is quite frank about some of his concerns which he said have the potential of making our lives, including those of his children and grandchildren miserable. You cannot take it away from Mayor Duterte to express grave concern over the impact of population explosion that has the potential of becoming a powder keg.
The mayor related a recent incident that happened during his inspection of Bankerohan market. He said that he was met by a swarm of little children whose parents live below poverty line. Watching the horde of children made him realize that if the global economic meltdown will hit the country, there is no telling where and what will these kids be doing in the next two to three anemic years ahead. How will their parents feed them adequately and failing in this where will these tykes turn to fend for food?
There were measures which were supposed to address the problem of food security, but the funds that should have gone to the farmers for fertilizer were instead purloined by members of congress who apportioned the largesse to their subalterns. The scam is to be blamed for rice shortage and the dependency of the country to rice imports. Indeed, with that kind of problem and rapacity, you do not need the collapse of Wall Street to happen. Hunger will stalk us from within in the next two years if funds intended for agricultural productivity will continue to be sucked by insatiable leeches in congress. It's not Duterte saying that. It's me.
But it's not only congressmen who thought they can grow rice in the cement jungle of the metropolis and nurture this with foliar fertilizer. In juxtaposition we have religious leaders, aging bishops among them, who thought that extending the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program is a panacea to agrarian-based problems. I commiserate with the demonstrating farmers who went on hunger strike to dramatize their plea. I knew from their sunburned face, scarred hands and dirt underneath their fingernails that majority of them are landless farmers who missed the chance of owning the land they till.
Blame it on Carp of President Cory. She wanted to outshine Marcos' "land for the actual tiller", meaning tenants. Her left-leaning agrarian reformists drafted CARP and came out with the dictum "land for the landless".
Let's face it. The actual tillers knew very little of the nuances in government bureaucracy. When DAR made the list of the landless, the tenants were left out in the rush of people from the urban centers, shady operators among them professional squatters, who managed to get their names among the landless first. It was too late for some tenants to realize that they were the last of the priority.
If the inutile Carp has to be extended, it should not be solely anchored on the plea of demonstrating farmers of extending the life of the Carp. This ought to be extended to assess the implementation of the program. The so-called landless beneficiaries who failed to till the lands awarded to them should be deprived of these precious properties.
They are brazen opportunists who deserve to hung by the noose. Lands that were sold by these beneficiaries and later converted to subdivisions should be confiscated by the government otherwise revise the valuation of the properties and compel the developers to pay additional taxes.
Lands that had been subjected to operation land transfer and had been awarded to the landless but were later found out to be uncultivated must be confiscated by the government and re-awarded to actual tillers (tenants).
Carp has to be totally re-engineered to correct the venalities that have been perpetuated since it came to life. In fact Carp has to be extended for at least 10 more years. The first two to three years be dedicated to purging the list of beneficiaries of awardees who failed to cultivate their lands. The next seven years must be focused on helping the genuine tillers make their land productive. Funds for these purpose must not be in the hands of the legislators so that they can concentrate on crafting laws instead of other crafty sidelines like the fertilizer mess.
You have to pardon me for straying into the issue of Carp because the evil that shrouded the program has brought misery to the tenants who are the actual tillers. It brought bonanza to the landless, many of them hate to soil their manicured hands and abhor the smell of carabao's dung. Dung!
Excuse the outbursts. As one who grew up in the farm I share the deprivation of landless tenants and my heart bleeds for them. To them goes my sincere wish for a Merry Christmas and a good year ahead.
