Sunday, December 21, 2008 NegOr congressman favors Carp extension By Edmund B. Sestoso
REPRESENTATIVE George Arnaiz (2nd District, Negros Oriental) said that he is in favor of extending the government's Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (Carp) minus the compulsory acquisition component.
Arnaiz said the government, through the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR), should concentrate on providing support services to the existing beneficiaries of Carp and forego temporarily the compulsory acquisition.
Under the Carp law, there are two modes of distributing lands to the farmer beneficiaries -- voluntary offer to sell and compulsory acquisition.
Arnaiz lamented that while he is personally in favor of Carp extension, farmer beneficiaries do not get enough support from the National Government because the latter is only concentrating on compulsory acquisition.
In Negros Occidental, he said, thousands of farmer beneficiaries are up to now waiting for technical and financial assistance from the government.
"We need to concentrate on these beneficiaries and must show to our people that the Carp, the agrarian reform in this province and in the entire country is successful and we can only do that if we give more services to our beneficiaries" Arnaiz said.
He noted that there were some agricultural lands that were previously distributed to the farmers in the province but went back to their original owners due to lack of government support.
The same problem, Arnaiz said, is not limited to the farmer beneficiaries in the province but also to other provinces covered by the Carp.
Unfortunately, Arnaiz said he was not able to sign the joint resolution of Congress for the extension of Carp recently due to a family emergency regarding his father, Board Member Apolinario Arnaiz Sr.
