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Free farmers from debt: Sen. Cynthia Villar sponsors Senate Bill No. (SBN) 1850 or the proposed "New Agrarian Emancipation Act" on Wednesday, February 8, 2023 which aims to condone all unpaid loans of agrarian reform beneficiaries (ARBs), including interests, penalties and surcharges arising from the award of agricultural lands under the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP). The committee-approved measure also seeks to emancipate ARBs from all cases related to the non-payment of their loans. Villar, chairperson of the Committee on Agriculture, Food and Agrarian Reform, said freeing farmers of their debt will help ease their burden following the COVID-19 pandemic. "Condoning their amortization will provide them the much-needed financial resources that shall help them develop their farms, increase their productivity and advance an agriculture-driven economy, improve the lives and that of their families, reduce poverty, accelerate rural development and promote food security," Villar said. About P14.62 billion in unpaid loans, interests, penalties and surcharges will be written off should the bill be passed into law, Villar said. (Voltaire F. Domingo/Senate PRIB)