Agrarian Reform Secretary Nasser Pangandaman yesterday said Arroyo land in Negros Occidental, including Hacienda Bacan in Isabela town, will be covered by the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program.

Task Force Mapalad had earlier charged that the Arroyos were converting the 157-hectare Hacienda Bacan into an agro industrial estate for production of ethanol to avoid its CARP coverage.

But Pangandaman yesterday told the DAILY STAR First Gentleman Mike Arroyo has already said that Bacan  is being offered for CARP coverage but that qualified beneficiaries should be identified.

Coverage of Bacan is a work in progress, there are workers from three groups who have laid claims, including those from TFM, he said.

Pangandaman also said that the House Committee on Agrarian Reform approved consolidated bill for the five-year extension of the CARP covers the land acquisition and distribution component of the program.

Some groups have been batting for a moratorium on distribution and for the continuation of only the support services component of CARP.

The extension will allow the government to distribute 1.2 million hectares more of land, with a proposed P100 billion more to be allocated for the purpose, Pangandaman said.

House Speaker Prospero Nograles, in a press statement posted on the House website, said the House of Representatives will attempt to facilitate the passage of the proposal to extend CARP for another five years before it adjourns on June 13 but hopes the measure will be an improved version of the existing agrarian reform law.

"After 20 years of implementation, we have seen many loopholes in the CARP Law so we have to correct them through this proposed extension. For one, we really have to put in place a provision prohibiting conversion of agricultural lands to stop the decline of agricultural production and boost our food security program," Nograles said.

Another flaw of the CARP implementation, Nograles said, is the lack of government support and monitoring of the distributed lands to ensure that each piece of land awarded to farmer-beneficiaries are productive.

"All lands distributed under the CARP Law should be productive. I've heard stories about beneficiaries using their lands as collateral to loan money just to be able to buy a new television set. All distributed lands should be highly productive especially now that we are in the middle of a global food problem," Nograles said.

"We need to complete the vision and goals set under the 1988 CARP Law to emancipate our farmers and make them true partners in development especially our quest for food security and sustained economic growth," he added.*CPG

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