Agrarian reform beneficiaries and child laborers yesterday joined the call of Governor Joseph Marañon for adequate support services in the implementation of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program in Negros Occidental.

Agrarian reform beneficiary Eleserio Handumon said he was forced to lease half of the 1.4 hectare of land awarded to them by the Department of Agrarian Reform in Brgy. Camandag, La Castellana, to support his family, while tilling the remaining parcel of land.

“We may have been given a parcel of land, but there is no adequate support from DAR,” Handumon said.

Sabino Onggod who shared the observation of Handumon, said he is racing against time to pay his debts, in order to sustain the productivity of a small parcel of land given to him by the government.

Onggod said the government should fulfill its promise to uplift their lives, by also providing them with support services.

Robert,12, and Ana Fe,14, whose last names were withheld, joined Handumon and Onggod who gave their testimonies yesterday in a forum on Current Plight of Agrarian Reform Beneficiaries sponsored by the Political Science Society of the University of St. La Salle in Bacolod City

Like any other children, Robert said he has to work in the farm to augment the meager income of his parents, despite the land given to them by the government.

He also enjoined the government to provide agrarian reform beneficiaries with support services.

Joel Jaquinta, a member of the organization Dagyaw, said it took five to 10 years for an agrarian reform beneficiary to own land.

“We are for extension of the CARP program, but the government should give farmers adequate support services,” Jaquinta said.

Businessman Jose Ma. Zayco, vice-president of the Metro Bacolod Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said they are not opposing the extension of CARP.

Zayco, however, said the government should not neglect its duty to help the beneficiaries by providing them support services.

While the government spent P120 billion for the implementation of agrarian reform program for 34 years, it has not uplifted the lives of majority of beneficiaries, although there were some success stories, he also said.

Former La Castellana Mayor Enrico Elumba reiterated his call for a moratorium on land distribution in areas where the current amount of property disposed is way beyond the capability of government to support.

Elumba, who was among the speakers in the forum, stressed a need for a restudy the CARP law with emphasis on the sustainability of the program and revenue generation.

He noted that DAR has been overly focused on land disposition, which oftentimes, is way beyond the capacity of the government to support in terms of socio-economic programs, he said.

Because of lack of financial and technical support, CARP beneficiaries mortgage their land after being in possession of it for a month or two. The mortgagee becomes the new landowner and the CARP beneficiary is relegated to his previous status as worker or laborer of the land, Elumba said.

Without sufficient economic support, the beneficiaries are at a loss as to how to convert their land originally devoted to sugar farming to some other productive farming, he added.*GPB

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