Six-month CARP extension now a law

MANILA, Philippines - A joint congressional resolution extending the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) to June has effectively lapsed into law after President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo chose not to sign it. Presidential Adviser for Political Affairs Gabriel S. Claudio said the resolution automatically became a law on January 23, 30 days after it was approved by Congress in lieu of a new agrarian reform program. "The Office of the President had formally communicated this to both houses of Congress," Mr. Claudio said in a text message to reporters. He stressed that the extension was a temporary measure and that a new CARP law would still be pursued. "It was the understanding between the Executive and leaders of both chambers that the resolution would only be a stopgap measure," Mr. Claudio said. The CARP, which commenced in 1988, was originally scheduled to run for ten years. Failure to meet its targets led to its extension to the end of last year and criticism that it was riddled with flaws. Failure to agree on how to continue to program led to the Congress resolution, which came with a recommendation of a moratorium on compulsory land acquisitions. Rolando T. Dy, University of Asia and the Pacific (UA&P) professor and executive director of the UA&P Center for Food and Agribusiness, said the six-month extension would not affect farm production and would in fact allow lawmakers time to craft a more efficient CARP law. "The objective is for Congress to craft amendments for a better law with inputs from the academe and the private sector. Hopefully [it will be] a law that will be conducive to investments and job creation in the countryside," he said. Political analyst and Institute for Political and Electoral Reform executive director Ramon C. Casiple, for his part, said "CARP as we know it is over as a result what Congress did." "There are about 700,000 hectares of land left — including those belonging to the Arroyos — and they’re no longer ’CARPable’," he said in a telephone interview. He claimed the "better law" vowed by the administration would likely remain a promise as politicians focus more on the 2010 elections after the President’s State of the Nation Address (SONA) in July. "There will be no good legislation after the SONA," Mr. Casiple said. — Bernardette S. Sto. Domingo, BusinessWorld