Marcos enacts debt forgiveness law for 610k farmers
MANILA, Philippines — President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. on Friday enacted a law that is seen to unburden farmers from decades-old debts under the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program, which distributes land to tillers but not for free.
Weeks before his second State of the Nation Address, Marcos signed into law the Republic Act 11953 New Agrarian Emancipation Act (NAEA). During the ceremonies, he said the law is for “social justice for our farmers.”
Marcos, concurrently agriculture chief, recalled that in his first SONA, he promised to continue the Agrarian Reform Program. But he stressed that helping farmers goes beyond giving them lands to till, but to freeing them of debts.
“The law condones all unpaid amortizations, including interests and surcharges, for awarded lands,” the president said.
Under the newly signed law, a total of 610,054 ARBs will benefit, Marcos said.
The STAR, quoting the Department of Agrarian Reform, reported that the law condones P57.56 billion of unpaid amortizations from the principal debt incurred by the more than 600,000 ARBs cultivating 1.173 million hectares of land across the country.
“The government will also assume the obligation of our Agrarian Reform Beneficiaries for the payment of just compensation to landowners under the Voluntary Land Transfer or Direct Payment schemes, for the benefit of 10,201 ARBs with total payables of P206.5 million,” Marcos added.
The president however said that he learned that handing of land titles to ARBs is just the first step in genuine agrarian emancipation.
“Free land distribution must go hand-in-hand with broadening the provision of credit facilities and support services in the form of farm inputs equipment and facilities to our farmers as well as the construction of more farm to market roads,” Marcos said, adding that these will “yield more sustainable farms and higher income for farmers.”
He committed to the continued support of the government to farmers.
Issues with agrarian reform
The Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program was a policy measure during the time of the late President Corazon Aquino. It aimed to reinvigorate agriculture in the country by redistributing private and public agricultural lands to farmers.
Despite its early success, this left the sector worse for wear. The farmers were not given the capital and support services needed to transform the land to become profitable.
Rep. Joey Sarte Salceda (Albay), chair of the House Ways and Means Committee, earlier noted this as he pointed out that a portion of land awarded to CARP beneficiaries was unproductive.
"CARP without adequate support services and with limited capital or entrepreneurship among farmer-beneficiaries is shown to have reduced agricultural productivity in CARP lands by as much as −34.1% compared to baseline," he said.
Farmers and fisherfolk are the two poorest sectors of Philippine society, despite accounting for 10% of the country's gross domestic product annually.
Despite this, Sonny Africa, executive director at local nonprofit IBON Foundation, called the move a "belated and imperfect correction of a long-standing defect of agrarian reform in the country."
"The government also shouldn't be making a big deal out of 'condoning' over P58 billion in arrears that it probably wouldn't be able to collect anyway because farmers are kept so poor," he said in a Viber message. — with reports from Ramon Royandoyan, The STAR/Helen Flores
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