DATA ON CARP FUNDS, LAND DISTRIBUTION GIVEN BY DAR CHIEF STILL INCOMPLETE -- PIMENTEL

Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Q. Pimentel, Jr. (PDP-Laban) today said Secretary Nasser Pangandaman of the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) has furnished his office a report on the implementation of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) since 1988 in compliance with his demand for a full accounting of the funds spent for the program.

Pimentel said that on the whole, he found the report good enough although it still lacks certain information that he was asking to guide him and other senators in deciding on the legislative measure to extend CARP which expired June 10.

"In general, the accounting of the CARP funds made by Secretary Pangandaman is okay. But addition details are needed: 1. Identification of landowners whose lands were acquired and paid for by the government during his stint; 2. What assistance or support services were directly given to specific land reform beneficiaries; 3. Why was CARP money sent to the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao when it is supposedly not covered by the program and to whom it was given?" the senator from Mindanao said.

Pimentel also noted that while the Pangandaman report was dated June 3, it was transmitted to his Senate office only on June 10. He lamented that the late submission of the report prevented him and his colleagues from deciding on the fate of CARP before the current session of Congress ended June 10.

However, he made it clear that he and many of his colleagues are in favor of passing the law extending the effectivity of CARP to enable the DAR and other government agencies to complete the acquisition and distribution of farm lands to qualified and legitimate beneficiaries.

In his report, Pangandaman said a total of P162 billion has been released for CARP as of December 2007, including P72 billion from the Presidential Commission on Good Government, P25.9 billion from the Asset Privatization Trust and the Privatization Management Office under the Department of Finance, P55.9 billion from the general fund (general appropriations act) and P7.9 billion from other sources.

Of the P72 billion remitted by the PCGG. P24.5 billion represented the share of CARP from the P35 billion Marcos bank deposits that were recovered from Switzerland in 2004.

The report said that P150 billion or 94 percent of the P162 billion allocation for CARP from 1988 to 2007 was utilized by the CARP implementing agencies. DAR utilized P74 billion or 49 percent of the P150 billion, followed by the Land Bank of the Philippines, P54.7 billion (36 percent).

The DAR and Department of Environment and Natural Resources have distributed 7.1 million hectares or 79 percent of the 9 million hectares covered by CARP. Still to be distributed are 1.8 million hectares to benefit about 1.4 million farmers.

According to the report, the Land Bank approved for payment a total of 1,445,565 hectares of lands with a total value of P50.9 billion. This represents 36 percent of the total 3,960,255 hectares distributed by DAR which are compensable by Land Bank.