Pimentel wants full accounting of CARP funds before extension

SENATE minority leader Aquilino Pimentel Jr. yesterday said there should be a full accounting of the agrarian reform funds under the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) before the law that created CARP is extended beyond June 10.

"There must be a full accounting of the tens of billions of pesos spent for CARP since it was first implemented in 1988 in view of allegations about corruption and misuse of money," Pimentel said. "We do not see that yet because every time the CARP is in danger of extinction, they just come back to say we need more money to keep CARP alive."

Pimentel said it is not even clear where the government will get the P162 billion that the Department of Agrarian Reform says is needed to continue and complete the CARP. He said there is also a need to redefine "just compensation" for private agricultural lands that are compulsorily covered by CARP or voluntarily sold to the government for redistribution to farmer-beneficiaries. "Of what use is the extension of the CARP law if there is no funding? The funding issue is very important and that is anchored on what the term just compensation means."

Pimentel said among the CARP funds that have not been liquidated are its P28-billion share in recovered Marcos bank deposits from Switzerland. He added that the administration has yet to fully respond to the allegations by farmers’ organizations that part of the recovered Marcos bank deposits had been diverted to President Arroyo’s campaign kitty in 2004.

Pimentel said it was revealed during the CBCP-Legislators’ forum that the Supreme Court in two cases had ordered the payment of a total of P1.122 million to two landowners as just compensation for lands placed under CARP. "This is terrible. With that kind of money being paid to big landowners, how can you sustain the CARP?" he said.

Pimentel said there is an emerging consensus among legislators to pass the law to extend the CARP but the Senate cannot act speedily on the bill because "there is a lot of information that still missing."

The Lower House has already passed a consolidation of 13 bills providing for a five-year extension of CARP with a funding of P100 billion.

Some 50 members of the militant Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP), marching in UP Diliman yesterday, said they are against the extension of CARP for being a fake agrarian reform project and urged the Catholic Bishops Conference to look more deeply into the issue of its extension which it supports.

KMP, which is pushing House Bill 3059 or the Genuine Agrarian Reform Bill, claimed "pseudo-farmers groups and opportunist groups are in collusion with Malacañang and have gone all out to have CARP railroaded because this program is one of their main milking cows."

"Naniniwala kami may ilang pseudo farmer groups ang partner ng DAR para itulak ang extension para mapanatili na maka-kulimbat sila ng pera at lalong majustify ang pananatili ng CARP," KMP deputy secretary general Willy Marbella said.

KMP chairman and Anak-pawis concurrent president Rafael Mariano said, "Kinakai-langan din natin balikan, sa ilalim ng CARP malalaking lupain ang na-convert at napalitan ng pananim kung kaya sa pag-papalawig pa nito, tiyak na madadagdagan pa ang mga kaso ng conversions."

KMP said in Southern Tagalog alone 1,302, 375.37 hectares are already under land use conversion and 172,967.30 hectares have already been converted. Landlords and big real estate companies used the CARP to evict peasants and convert the land. "Sana makita ng mga obispo ang nasa likuran ng pagtutulak sa CARP extension at pakinggan ang mga hinaing ng mga magsasaka sa ibaba," Mariano said.

The Council of Agricultural Producers said in a statement that CARP should not be extended, blaming it for the current rice shortage, decrying "the disturbance and divisiveness" it brought about, the fragmentation of lands, and the abandonment and underutilization of the lands by supposed beneficiaries which led to unpro-ductivity. – Dennis Gadil and Randy Nobleza