About 1,000 farmer members of Task Force Mapalad burned “kamangyan (a local incense)”, lighted candles and sacrificed a chicken in front of the house of Bacolod Rep. Monico Puentevella yesterday to allegedly drive away spirits that manipulate the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program's non-extension.

TFM-Negros president Jose Rodito Angeles said Puentevella, along with Rep. Ignacio Arroyo and Jeffrey Ferrer, (Negros Occidental, 5 th and 4 th District, respectively) are against the extension of the CARP program.

He said the solons only favor an extension of the CARP program for the production of bio-ethanol. “We do not question this as long as the lands are distributed so that we will earn whatever income it will generate,” he said.

Angeles said that if the solons are against the extension of the CARP program, they are not bringing the real voice of the people. He said they offered burnt incense which symbolizes the cleansing of oneself and lighted candles, which is believed to enlighten the mind so that those in the government will be guided to do what is right.

The ritual was one of the activities that capped the four-day “Walk for Land Reform and Justice,” which was participated in by thousands of peasants members of TFM from different towns and cities in Negros Occidental.

The activity, which stalled traffic along Burgos extension in Bacolod City yesterday, was preceded by a mass at the San Sebastian Cathedral where the farmers spent the night after the trek.

The farmers then trekked to the Provincial Agrarian Reform Office in Dawis where they called on Agrarian Reform Officer Teresita Depeñoso to immediately issue a certification that would place all private agricultural lands, especially the Arroyo property in Hacienda Bacan, under CARP and hasten their coverage.

Meanwhile, Puentevella said he wants the extension of the CARP program but he believes this has to be reviewed first.

He said he has authored House Resolution No. 179, a resolution directing the appropriate House Committee to conduct an inquiry in aid of legislation into the need to extend the CARP program, and H.B. No. 1868 strengthening the implementation of the CARP program.

Puentevella said it is the main purpose of H.B. No. 1868 to provide farmer-beneficiaries more rights to maximize the benefits they can derive from the land awarded to them. By allowing them to use their Certificate of Land Ownership Award as collateral in obtaining loans, they will have additional input and capitalization to increase their yield, he said.

H.B. No. 179 says that some beneficiaries claimed that the program failed to serve its purpose and that the extension of CARP's term is not a practical consideration it being non-responsive to its mandate of alleviating the lives of farmer-beneficiaries.*CGS

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