Wednesday, March 12, 2008 Landowners seeks review of the CARP implementation
LANDOWNERS want a review of government's Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (Carp), which has been ongoing implementation for about 20 years.
While they support an extension of the program, they want a through review of how it is implemented so as to clear the air of conflicting purposes that have created animosities between landowners and farmers.
This is the position also raised by landowners in Negros Oriental who are also members of the Confederation of Sugar Planters Association of the Philippines.
Lawyer Gil Marie Alba, the confederation's spokesperson, said with Carp being in full swing for 20 years is the negative impact on the welfare of both the farmers and the landowners.
The lawyer explained that the paramount constitutional purpose of agrarian reform is to eradicate poverty but that what the Department of Agrarian Reform did was reduce Carp into mere land redistribution, which he said is shortsighted and even violates the Constitution.
"A review of the constitutional provisions mentioning agrarian reform shows that these were intended to uplift the socio economic state of the tillers of the soil and to transform landowners into investor-catalysts of economic development and industrialization," he said.
He also said that under the existing Carp Law or RA 6657, particularly Section 3, agrarian reform is not limited to land distribution but includes all alternative arrangements like production or profit sharing, labor administration, and distribution of shares of stocks. This allows beneficiaries to receive a just share of the fruits of the lands they till.
Alba said there is something wrong in its implementation because industrialization and full employment are supposed to flow from agrarian reform and sound agricultural development.
"It is supposed to link to government's mandate to promote comprehensive rural development," the lawyer emphasized.
It is in this same line, the lawyer said, that government should initiate a review of Carp before extending it. (EBS)
