The Negros CARP Reform Movement called on the government yesterday to extend and amend the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program to preserve the gains of peasant initiatives for social justice and rural development.

In a press conference, Kid Bañas of NCRM said that, despite the weaknesses of the existing agrarian reform law, it has provided the farmers with an arena to initiate genuine reform measures to lay their claim over the land and assert their right to development.

The NCRM said it believes that allowing CARP to lapse would be a big blow to the struggle against destitution and disempowerment and will not augur well for the country's war against poverty and underdevelopment.

Pastor Manuel Alano of the Agrarian Reform Advocacies, one of the groups allied with NCRM, said it is imperative that Congress pass as soon as possible a law that will strengthen the agrarian reform program and deliver social justice to both beneficiaries and landowners.

In a statement, NCRM conveners noted that delaying tactics were employed by landlord-Congressmen to slow down the process of legislating CARP's extension and reform.

The group added that in the countryside, some private landowners are still taking advantage of the program's loopholes to elude compulsory acquisition by using outright aggression.

Meanwhile, Joserodito Angeles of Task Force Mapalad said they will spearhead a Lakbayan on Feb. 28 to be participated by at least 10,000 farmers from the two islands in Negros to express their demand for CARP extension.

The groups allied with NCRM also expressed support to House Bill 1257 filed by AKBAYAN Representative Risa Hontiveros-Baraquel which calls for CARP extension with reform.*NAB

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