Wednesday, May 07, 2008 Bishops to DAR: Impose Carp on Arroyos
THE Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) has asked the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) to go after landlords, including the family of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, who do not comply with the implementation of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (Carp).
"It's not for us to appeal but for the DAR to impose the law even on them (Arroyos)," CBCP president and Jaro Archbishop Angel Lagdameo said in a press briefing after Tuesday's bishops-legislators caucus on the proposed extension of Carp.
Lagdameo revealed that there are still two million hectares of land owned both by private landowners and the government that have yet to be distributed under the 20-year-old program.
He said the DAR "will have to determine" if the properties of the Arroyo family were among the two million hectares of land not covered by Carp.
According to Task Force Mapalad (TFM), a total of 369 hectares owned by the family of First Gentleman Jose Miguel "Mike" Arroyo were not placed under Carp and it seemed that the DAR is protecting the presidential in-laws by pending their properties' inclusion in the program.
Eden Sobrecanay, TFM representative, said three properties of the Arroyos in Negros Occidental have pending notices of conversation in the DAR since 2001 and have yet to be resolved even if the Carp's deadline ends in June this year.
One of the properties of the Arroyos was even listed in the name of the First Gentleman, a 157-hectare property in Negros Occidental.
Another is Hacienda Grande, a 196-hectare land owned by lawyer Antonio Arroyo, the First Gentleman's uncle, and a 16-hectare property called Hacienda Paraiso also under his name.
Sobrecanay charged the Arroyos of skirting away from Carp by converting their properties into bio-fuel lands.
Former CBCP vice president and Cagayan de Oro Archbishop Antonio Ledesma earlier charged Negros Occidental Representative Ignacio Arroyo of blocking the passage of the Carp extension in Congress to protect the interest of landowners.
DAR Undersecretary Gerundio Madueño meantime explained that the reason the Arroyo properties remain pending is "there is a process for that, social justice is both for landowners and farmers."
During the caucus, the CBCP and the members of both Houses agreed to extend the land reform program for another five to seven years and employ reforms to ensure its success.
The bishops and legislators also agreed to prioritize big landholdings in the distribution of land, exclusive of the DAR jurisdiction over agrarian reform cases, and stronger sanctions for non-complying parties, among eight other items the group approved in a summit.
"The conversions of irrigated lands into non-agricultural purposes and mining, the shameful lack of affordable credit and other support services accessible to the small farmers, the environmental despoliation and the cartelization of the rice and food industry which put profit over people's needs have emerged to bring home the point that the central character of our food production -- the Filipino farmer -- has been alienated from his land and produce," said the statement.
Ledesma said the bishops-legislators' statement would be delivered to the President by Bishop Buenaventura Famadico of Gumaca, Quezon and Archbishop Diosdado Talamayan of Tuguegarao. (MSN/Sunnex)
