Don’t extend CARL, House urged

MANILA, Philippines - A farmers’ group has asked the House of Representatives to ignore a proposal seeking to extend anew the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Law (CARL).

The Jalasig Sugarcane Planters Association (JSPA) said the law has outlived its purpose and the government should now focus on helping the beneficiaries make their farms productive.

The House is set to hold plenary debates this week on the proposal of the Department of Agrarian Reform to extend CARL for another two years, particularly its land acquisition and distribution provisions, after its two-year extension expired last June.

JSPA is composed of small sugarcane farmers and farmer-beneficiaries of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP).

Eugenio Hautea of JSPA said that 26 years since the implementation of CARP, most if not all of its beneficiaries remain poor.

“There are very few success stories among the CARP beneficiaries and a majority of them can only share tales of failures and hopelessness,” he said.

He said most beneficiaries received lands but were not given the ability to enrich these.

Many end up leasing these lands to other people because they no longer want to farm, he said.

Hautea said the country’s agricultural productivity is on the decline following the shrinking number of agricultural lands due to land conversion, mismanagement and underutilization of farmlands distributed under the CARP.

He warned this could lead to a food crisis in the next 10 to 20 years.