KMP chief urges solons to consider HB 3059 or GARB

MANILA, Philippines - Incoming Anakpawis party-list Representative Rafael Mariano on Friday said that House Bill 4077 or the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program extension bill will not rectify the inherent anti-farmer and pro-landlord character of CARP. Instead of HB 4077, he said that Congress to give due consideration to House Bill 3059 or the proposed “Genuine Agrarian Reform Act" or GARB. “The so-called reforms under the proposed bill to grant another five-year lease in life to the government’s 20 year-old CARP are mere decorations aimed to resurrect a dead program," Mariano said in a statement. “Even if extended, CARP remains a bogus agrarian program... the CARP itself was used by big landlords to evade land distribution,"he said. Mariano who also chairs the Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas, the biggest peasant group in the country, blamed the CARP’s continued threats of displacement and land-grabbing to tens of thousands of farmers and farm workers in Hacienda Luisita in Tarlac, Haciendas Looc and Roxas in Batangas, Haciendas San Antonio and Sta. Isabel in Isabela among others. “All these cases arise from CARP and ranges from the cancellation and confiscation of so-called certificates of land ownership, land-use conversions, crops conversion, non-land distribution schemes like the notorious stock distribution option, up to forcible and barefaced land-grabbing. Big landowners made use of the CARP to evade land distribution," the militant lawmaker stressed. Among the so-called reforms being bragged by the proponents of the bill are: the so-called ‘gender-responsive’ provision, indefeasibility of certificates of award, formation of a joint congressional oversight committee, P100-billion funding, increase in funding on support services, and liberalized credit. “These so-called reform provisions are mere icings on a rotten cake," the Anakpawis lawmaker said. Mariano said that “none of the so-called reform provisions will defend and protect farmers struggling for their rights to the land from land-grabbing. Even the so-called indefeasibility of land awards will not protect them. In fact, this provision even provided landowners one year and another 180 days to question the awarded certificates in court." “It is long overdue for Congress to send CARP to the archives and pave the way for a truly distributive land reform program," the peasant leader said. Mariano called on both chambers of Congress to consider House Bill 3059 filed by the progressive party list bloc in the House. “Let us put a stop on continuing myths and deceptions attached to CARP and enact a new truly distributive land reform program," the peasant leader said. - GMANews.TV