CITY OF SAN FERNANDO – The country will have no land reform law past June 30 after Congress adjourned without passing the proposed extension of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) which expires on the said date.
Farmers have claimed victory over this development, noting that Pres. Aquino had even certified as urgent the proposed CARP extension proposal in Congress. Now, they want CARP replaced by a “genuine land reform law.”
Without any law on land reform, the Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP) said yesterday it expected farmers to launch “series of protest actions demanding free land distribution and intensify land cultivation campaigns in the countryside.”
“Now that the CARP’s days are numbered and there is no more sham land distribution program come June 30, we call on the Filipino peasantry to further heighten the struggle and demand for a new and genuine land reform law,” KMP Chair Rafael Mariano said.
The KMP expressed jubilation over the failure of both Congress chambers to pass House Bill 4296 and Senate Bill 2188 that sought to extend the CARP for another two years by allowing the Department of Agrarian Reform to issue notices of coverage (NOC) up to June 30, 2016.
“Congress’ failure to extend Aquino’s bogus land reform program is a result of millions of CARP victims’ collective determination to junk the CARP,” said Mariano. “Twenty six years of CARP-sponsored land grab and bloodshed in the countryside is enough. Any attempt to resurrect a dead horse like CARP despite its failure of epic proportions is pure stupidity,” Mariano stressed.
The KMP urged Congress, which resumes session in July, to “immediately tackle House Bill 252 or the Genuine Agrarian Reform Bill that seeks to break landlord control and monopoly of lands through the nationalization and free distribution of lands to landless farmers.”
“CARP’s failure dictates that the passage of a new and genuine land reform law is in order. We call on Congress to give GARB a chance,” the KMP leader said.
