PHILIPPINES: FARMERS SLAM LANDOWNERS, ‘IGGY’ ARROYO FOR MOVES TO STOP CARP

Some 2,000 farmers who gathered yesterday at the House of Representatives to push for the extension of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) slammed Rep. Ignacio “Iggy” Arroyo and the big landowners of Negros Occidental for alleged efforts to derail the implementation of the program.

In a rally that marked the launching of the national peasant coalition Kilusan para sa Repormang Pansakahan at Katarungan (Movement for Agrarian Reform and Justice, or simply Katarungan), group spokesman Armando Hilario said Arroyo is among the lawmakers who are actively collaborating with big landowners to stop the extension of CARP beyond 2008.

“The big landowners are actively campaigning for an end to CARP. They are aided by some lawmakers who are big landowners themselves. Prominent among these anti-CARP lawmakers is Congressman Iggy Arroyo, brother of the First Gentleman,” said Hilario, who represents the farmers from Negros Occidental.

CARP will end next year, but at least five bills have been filed in the House seeking for its extension.

Hilario said that Rep. Arroyo played a crucial role in the anti-CARP lobby of big landowners in Negros Occidental.

“He initiated the formation of the landowners’ group called Concerned Landowners of Negros that opposes the extension of CARP. He is also behind the call of landowners for a review of how CARP was implemented during the past 19 years. Their aim in calling for such a review is not to improve CARP but to stop its implementation,” he said.

He said Rep. Arroyo is doing all he can in Congress to prevent the extension of CARP.

“His ultimate aim is to prevent the distribution of the family-owned landholdings which President Arroyo promised to distribute in 2001. These include Haciendas Bacan, Grande and Paraiso,” he said.

Hilario further said that Rep. Arroyo maneuvered to have the 157-hectare Hacienda Bacan in Barangay Guintubahan, Isabela reclassified from agricultural to agro-industrial land to justify his plan to put up an ethanol plant.

“The reclassification was done through a resolution from the municipal council of Isabela, which was later upheld by the provincial council of Negros Occidental,” he said.

He claimed that the reclassification was erroneous and illegal because it did not have the required certification from the Department of Agrarian Reform saying that the property is not subject to CARP.

“The fact is that prior to the illegal reclassification, the property is under petition for distribution by 68 farm workers. It has been placed under coverage of CARP and, therefore, it cannot be reclassified,” he said.

Eddie Lopez, speaking for farmers from Bondoc Peninsula, said they will continue to stage rallies and protests in front of Congress until the lawmakers pass the law extending CARP and retaining the program’s land acquisition and distribution (LAD) component.

“We will wage a sustained campaign to ensure that the bill extending CARP with the LAD component intact is passed” Lopez said.

He added: “We are not only after the extension of CARP per se. We want the LAD component to remain a major part of the program,” Lopez said.

He said powerful groups of landowners, supported by landowning legislators, are calling for a so-called “Reformed CARP” that focuses merely on support services and leaves out the land distribution aspect.

“Some landlords pretend that they do not oppose the extension of CARP, so they call for a reformed CARP, but in reality they want to stop land distribution,” said Lopez.—(30)

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