ON THE end of the month, President-elect Benigno Aquino III sat as the 15th President of our country. He is already warning every Filipino that he has no "super power" to make a difference or change the country. Most likely this will be the content of his inaugural speech.
Unlike his predecessor, who boldly tells the public that she could effect great changes by making the country a "Strong Republic," Noynoy knows that he could not promise neither heaven nor hell to the public.
Media and other critics of the new government will surely tag the new president as Pinoy. He becomes the epitome or representative of the whole nation. Everyone, who believes in him, sees him as one who embodies the characteristics of the Filipino.
One could not deny the fact that there are unresolved issues as to the Aquino family and the workers of their vast estates. However, one must consider that this does not only affect the Aquinos but it is a nationwide problem. The root of this disarray in land reform is the passage of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Law (Carl) during the time of the late Corazon Aquino. The law is inutile for majority of the people in Congress were landlords whose lands will surely be covered by the law. So, the Carl remained to be a futile and inutile law.
I usually tagged this CARL as "penoy" or "boiled spoiled egg". Usually, the "penoys" are cooked together with the "balut" (boiled fertilized duck eggs). They mix together and they are usually mistaken as balut themselves. The CARL is a spoiled law. Examining it would be very interesting because it will turn the whole country into a vast agricultural nation that will surely answer the problem of food security. The law was passed in 1988 as RA 6657 which orders the government agencies to effect a genuine and comprehensive land reform program for the country. It was a joyous moment for the land tillers but protests were hurled by landowners.
Carp eased its way in the early 90's. Many planters decided not to plant products for fear of compulsory acquisition of lands by government. Signatories of the law were condemned and became enemies of the rich. Implementing guidelines were delayed and eventually the law became inutile and useless. Many alternatives were thought of, just to derail the comprehensive implementation of the law.
Now, the problem of food security is being blamed on the failure of CARP. The law could have been the solution only of it was implemented properly and without the political interests of many politicians and landlords. It could have answered many problems on food security and economics.
Land reform as written in the CARP would redistribute the lands and would give proper capitalizations and education to the land beneficiaries. This is different from the land reform decree of Marcos which simply redistributed lands and limited the coverage to only rice and corn fields. CARP covered all agricultural lands.
Wise and rich landlords converted immediately their lands from agricultural to industrial and residential. The law had no way of retrieving the lands that were converted. Many converted the sugar fields into fishponds. Others converted their lands to forest areas. Today, government is still processing some of these conversions through many "under-the-table transactions."
The Land Reform program of the country has been extended for many times. The reason is not to have a comprehensive redistribution of land but this is simply to extend people in the Department. This is a strategy to prolong employment and not to really implement the program.
Carp in the country is not helping but is destroying the food security of every Filipino family. Should this program continue at its phase, the poor will surely get poorer and hungrier while the oppressive rich and abusive people in government will become richer. This country is really a penoy country. All program for the people are either half baked or failures.
Noynoy Aquino has to really put people who are willing to sacrifice for the good of the country so that each one can walk with pride and tell the world that we are PINOY and not a hiding Penoy.
St. Ezekiel Moreno, Pope John Paul II and Sir Faraon Lopez, pray for us.
Please pray for the success of the overnight camp of UNO-Recoletos on July 2, 2010.