Friday, August 29, 2008 Arroyo appeals for Carp extension anew
PRESIDENT Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo has renewed calls for Congress to extend the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (Carp) law which is now pending before their chamber.
Arroyo, during the 100th anniversary of the Philippine Free Press at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in Makati City, made the call to Congress through Makati Representative Teodoro Locsin Jr. as she recounted that his father and her father, the late President Diosdado Macapagal, worked together to pass the Carp law in the 1960s.
"My father knew that in abolishing tenancy, he would encounter the traditional and formidable opposition of the landlords and powerful interests, and so he was so fortunate to have the support of Teodoro Locsin - the man in the Philippines Free Press who was the most advocate champion of land reform," she said.
"And once again, I count on a Locsin, a Locsin in Congress and the Locsins in the Free Press to champion its extension. And I hope that we can work together, the way your father and my father did to have an extension of land reform with reforms that will truly emancipate and empower the farmer to be an agri-businessperson," she added.
The President also enjoined other members of the Philippine press to support moves to extend the Carp law.
Arroyo last June certified as urgent the measure extending the law for another five years extension of the law.
The Carp law initially expired on June 13, but a congressional resolution declaring and clarifying that agrarian reform program would expire in December 2008 was passed, allowing the land distribution aspect to continue. (JMR/Sunnex)
