House defers CARP extension vote, enraged farmers protest

MANILA, Philippines - The House of Representatives on Tuesday night deferred deliberations on House Bill 4077 that seeks to extend until 2013 the implementation of the 20-year-old Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP). Bayan Muna Rep. Satur Ocampo told GMANews.TV that the House instead came up with a resolution ensuring the availability of funds for the CARP’s land acquisition and distribution (LAD) component until the end of the year. “The House approved a resolution to the effect that the budget for LAD will be available until December 31, 2008, and not only until June 10, 2008," he said. Ocampo said the House would have six months or until December to deliberate on HB 4077 and other proposed measures on agrarian reform. “The deliberations will probably resume in July after President (Gloria Macapagal) Arroyo’s SONA (State of the Nation Address)," he said. Though majority of House members present during the deliberations favored HB 4077, the House leadership still decided to defer acting on the bill, because Speaker Prospero Nograles reportedly wanted an overwhelming support for the measure's passage. In Tuesday's straw vote, 97 lawmakers favored the measure, while 82 rejected the bill. Fifty three House members were absent during the voting. Protest The House’s failure to pass HB 4077 triggered protest among farmers who attended Tuesday night’s legislative session at the Batasan Complex in Quezon City. Several farmers booed at lawmakers when it was announced that the House would instead issue a resolution for the LAD budget. Radio dzBB's Rowena Salvacion reported that several farmers attending the session jumped off the House gallery, prompting House security to scramble and haul many of them away. "Ngayon kitang kita na panalo bakit kailangan ipagpaliban. Ibig sabihin nito, nagbababuyan dito (Now we see the CARP extension bill winning, then they suddenly shelve it. Now it is obvious these lawmakers are making a mockery of us)," a female farmer said. Police also closed the gates of the complex after the farmers' colleagues and supporters who were waiting outside Batasan started to light torches to protest the House decision to defer acting on HB 4077. The incident came a week after farmers stormed the office of Nograles, who earlier promised to pass HB 4077 on or before June 10, the date when Republic Act 6657 or the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Law (CARL) was signed by then President Corazon Aquino 20 years ago. House Bill 4077 Under HB 4077, 60 percent of the proposed P100-billion fund would be for LAD, while 40 percent would be for program beneficiaries development or support services to farmers. To protect a beneficiary’s ownership of the land, the bill would make certificates of landownership award “indefeasible," a year after the CLOA’s registration with the Office of the Registry of Deeds. Moreover, the measure seeks to guarantee the productivity of lands awarded to farmers. Thus, HB 4077 requires the DAR to establish within the five-year-extension, a minimum of three agrarian reform communities in each legislative district with a predominantly agricultural population. The measure also has a provision that promotes “gender responsive support services." The provision requires the State to “recognize and enforce the right of rural women to own and control land or to receive a just share of the fruits thereof." This portion of the measure was the response to the gender inequality between male and female FBs, which the CARL failed to address. Not convinced But other groups and lawmakers are not convinced of the reforms sought through HB 4077. Bayan Muna Rep. Teodoro Casiño, for instance, claimed that the bill’s enactment would “only mean the extension of a flawed CARP." He said the measure failed to include the acquisition and distribution of other agricultural landholdings, such as livestock and poultry farms, that were exempted from CARP through RA 6657. Casiño also claimed that HB 4077 did not exclude “non-redistributive" CARP acquisition schemes such as VOS, VLT, and SDOs or stock distribution option, which gave leeway to landowners to circumvent the law, and retain control of landholdings. Another “flaw" of RA 6657 cited by Casiño is the 30-year-amortization of FBs on the land awarded to them through the CARP. He said this “is too burdensome to farmers who are not even provided sufficient support services by the government." Casiño likewise criticized the CARL’s five-hectare and three-hectare retention areas provided to landowners and their children. Casiño, Ocampo and Gabriela Rep. Liza Masa want CARL replaced by another “more progressive" measure: House Bill 3059 or the “Genuine Agrarian Reform Bill" (GARB). GARB contains the following salient provisions:

• Expansion of the definition of agricultural land to broaden its scope and coverage of land distribution • Abrogation of the alternative schemes to physical land distribution, such as SDOs • Expropriation of all private lands exceeding five hectares • Completion of the distribution of lands within five years • Distribution of lands to FBs at no cost, and issuance of full title of emancipation • Writing off amortization payments on lands distributed under Presidential Decree 27 and RA 6657 and • Full restoration of the canceled CLOAs, certificates of land transfer, and EPs to FBs who fail to amortize on their lands. - GMANews.TV