The Metro Bacolod Chamber of Commerce and Industry is pushing for the temporary suspension of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program to pave the way for an overall assessment of its implementation.

The recommendation is contained in the memorandum the MBCCI submitted to Agrarian Reform Secretary Nasser Pangandaman which outlined some of the factors that led to the perception that the CARP has failed miserably to uplift the lives of workers.

MBCCI president Robert Montelibano said that almost 8,500 hectares have already been distributed to some 5,000 farm beneficiaries involving more than P8 billion of program funds, but up to now almost 15 years of implementation it is difficult to identify even one percent sustainable success anywhere in the province.

MBCCI said it is recommending the temporary suspension of the land reform program to pave the way for an assessment of the overall situation vis-à-vis the purpose of the program - alleviation of the worker's well economic well-being - and to resolve the pending cases and to develop corrective measures that will address the aspect that contributed to the failure.

In the study penned by sugar technologist Gregorio Lopez MBCCI said that its aim is to promote sustainable economic activity in Negros Occidental with its willingness to share time, skills and effort in ensuring the success of the program. For the moment, it said continuing to implement the program in, its present form, will only achieve ever wider areas of failure -increase the number of disenchanted beneficiaries, lower productivity and lower or disappearing government revenues.

CARP also created the perception that agriculture offers no future for the people, especially the children of the agrarian reform beneficiaries, it said.

MBCCI said that land reform in the sugar industry is a prime example of a grand and widespread failure simply because one of its basic element is missing. Education underpins the success or failure of any endeavor, it said.*RLE

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