President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo will certify as urgent a bill seeking a 10-year extension of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Law to 2018 when Congress convenes, Agrarian Reform Secretary Nasser Pangandaman told the DAILY STAR yesterday.

But Rep. Ignacio Arroyo (Neg. Occ., 5th district) said he and other solons are set to seek a review of the CARP first before a decision on the extension can be reached by Congress, which reconvenes on July 23.

Hearings will have to be conducted to determine whether CARP has succeeded in uplifting the lives of its beneficiaries, he said. The CARL, or Republic Act (RA) 6657, which took effect in 1988, expires next year.

Pangandaman said the DAR is helping draft the bill extending CARP that he expects will be filed by Quirino Rep. Junie Cua.

Pangandaman said the 10-year extension would allow the government to fully cover the remaining two million hectares private and public lands still to be placed under the CARP.

This will benefit an additional two million farmers, he said.

Seven million hectares have already been placed under CARP since 1988, benefiting about four million farmers, he said.

Negros Occidental Gov. Joseph Maranon is commissioning a study to determine if CARP beneficiaries in Negros Occidental are still tiling the land given them and if their lives had been uplifted.

Local officials have complained that CARP beneficiaries have caused a huge drop in real property tax collections needed to finance education needs of their constituents.

Marañon said the study on CARP in Negros will be submitted to the President sometime in the third quarter of this year.*CPG

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