Tuesday, March 11, 2008 NegOr farmers push for Baraquel's agrarian bill By Edmund B. Sestoso
FARMERS and beneficiaries of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (Carp) who are also members of the Negros Farmers Council and Negros Farmlands are now aggressively pushing for the passage of House Bill 1257 authored by Akbayan partylist Representative Riza Hontiveros-Baraquel.
The Negros Farmers Council and Negros Farmlands are assisted by Centro Saka, Incorporated, a nationwide agrarian reform advocacy group based in Manila with Eugene Quirante as liaison officer for Negros Oriental.
Quirante said NFC and Farmlands, including CSI, had unified their stand in their campaign to pass the House bill carrying most of the suggestions from farmers during consultations.
They said the recently concluded consultations done by the House committee on agrarian reform are big positive steps towards achieving their goal.
He said their group is also part of the Negros Carp Reform Movement, an affiliate of the nationwide Carp Reform Movement (RCM).
RCM is a broad coalition of small farmer organizations, farmer-based non-government organizations (NGOs), coalitions, party-list organizations, and agrarian reform advocates pushing for Carp extension with reforms.
The House committee on agrarian reform has conducted simultaneous consultations in three areas last March 7 in Dumaguete City in Negros Oriental, San Fernando, La Union, and Digos City in Davao del Sur.
Ben Villa, coordinator of Negros Farmlands, stressed that the enactment of HB 1257 will help hasten and complete the distribution of the remaining 1.3 million hectares of big private agricultural lands and address various policy and implementation concerns affecting agrarian reform implementation.
"If Carp implementation is extended for up to 7 years, millions of landless farmers and farm workers would have the chance to own the lands they have been tilling. The government should also provide sufficient budgetary support and direct the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) to focus its efforts on land acquisition and distribution," Villa stressed in the same media interview.
Quirante also explained that the provisions stipulating reforms in Carp such as providing secure titles, ensuring the actual and continuous possession of the land, and providing support services to agrarian reform beneficiaries would further enhance the protection of the economic rights of farmer-beneficiaries.
Angel Tormon, media officer of the Negros Farmers Council, also said the recently concluded provincial consultations had given the small farmers and agrarian reform beneficiaries the chance to persuade legislators to extend the implementation of the agrarian reform program.
"It also enables them to share their actual experiences concerning Carp implementation, which could justify the need to provide reform measures during the extension period," Tormon stressed.
Quirante also maintained that the Carp extension should not contain any provision allowing the use of farmlands as collateral for loans.
"Most farmers have poor economic conditions, and are subject to the vagaries of the weather such as El Niño and La Niña. They are not receiving the necessary support services from government, and the collateralization of farmlands would only cause bankruptcy among the ARBs," he said.
He added that "this would result in the massive foreclosure of Carp-awarded lands. What should be done, instead, is to strengthen the bankability and creditworthiness of farmers by providing them direct public investments in the form of support services."
