Arroyo urged to certify CARP extension bill as urgent

By Maila Ager

INQUIRER.net
Last updated 12:50pm (Mla time) 06/15/2007

http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/breakingnews/nation/view_article.php?article_id=71490

MANILA, Philippines -- President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo was urged Friday to certify as urgent a bill seeking to extend the life of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) for another decade.

The program, already extended by 10 years, is scheduled to expire on June 10, 2008.

Agrarian Reform Secretary Nasser Pangandaman presented to Arroyo a manifesto of support for the passage of the bill in a simple ceremony in Malacañang to mark the 19th anniversary of CARP.

During the program, Pangandaman reported that almost seven million hectares of agricultural lands have already been distributed to over four million farmer-beneficiaries, but that there remain over a million hectares yet to be distributed to another two million beneficiaries.

“You know, the program will end next year, June 10, 2008, and then, so we’ll be proposing for a 10-year extension, starting 2008,” he told reporters after the event.

Aside from distributing the remaining agricultural lands, Pangandaman said a 10-year of CARP would also allow government to support all farmers in the countryside” who have already been granted land under the program.

Pangandaman said there was a pending CARP extension bill in the 13th Congress but this was not passed and will have to be re-filed during the next Congress.