SAGAY CITY -- Senatorial candidates campaigning in Negros Occidental yesterday pledged to champion the cause of the sugar industry in the Senate, and review the effectiveness of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Law that is set to expire in 2008.

Senatorial candidate Loren Legarda of the Grand Opposition said "The issue of CARP that will expire in 2008 must be debated upon, studied and discussed comprehensively." "While the intention was good to alleviate the plight of our farmer-beneficiaries there have been many problems as well," she said, such as farmers selling their Certificates of Land Ownership Award to landowners, or having the lands, but not the means and the capital to use them effectively for their own benefit.

"We must understand and analyze the loopholes in the law that have not caused the upliftment of the lives of our farmer beneficiaries so that the law if extended can be improved or it may not be extended at all," she said.

As to the sugar industry, there is a need to curb or totally eliminate smuggled sugar, she said. Cheap sugar from other countries dumped into the Philippines adversely affects the local sugar industry and is a serious concern, she said.

Team Unity bet Juan Miguel Zubiri also stressed the need to study CARP to come up with an objective decision on the matter. If we decide to continue with CARP we have to make sure that the support services are there, he said.

Zubiri also called on the people to vote for him so he can champion the Biofuels Law in the Senate and ensure that it is implemented.

He said the big three oil firms are lobbying to delay the implementation of the Biofuels Law. "I am warning them now, let them not make the mistake of delaying the law because we can question that in the Supreme Court," he said.

Prospero Pichay, also of Team Unity, said the people should study ways to enable the Philippine sugar industry to compete with other producers, like those in Australia.

If he wins in the May polls, Pichay said he definitely will address the needs of the sugar industry.

At the same time, he said there is a need to study the effects of CARP on the country's agricultural productivity.

And we also have to consider the plight of farmers, he said.

Senatorial bet Chavit Singson, on the other hand, said he was not too familiar with the CARP problem and would study it.

"Whatever is good for Negros, that is what we will do," Singson said.

Meanwhile, Singson said he will also push the passage of law to keep the earnings of the sugar industry in Negros, stressing that his priority is for decentralization of the country's wealth so barangays can be developed.

The four senatorial bets were here for the birthday of Negros Occidental Gov. Joseph Marañon.*CPG

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