Press Release
December 26, 2008

Farmers have valid grounds to question resolution on CARP

Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Q. Pimentel, Jr. (PDP-Laban) today expressed the belief that the farmers belonging to Task Force Mapalad have valid grounds to file a petition with the Supreme Court questioning the constitutionality of the just-approved Congressional Joint Resolution l9 extending the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) by six months.

However, Pimentel advised the farmers to thoroughly study the implications of such course of action, pointing out that if Resolution 19 in its entirely is declared unconstitutional, CARP will be deemed expired by the end of this year. However, this does not preclude the possibility of Congress subsequently passing a new legislation governing agrarian reform.

Resolution 19, he said, is merely an extra ordinary device to meet an out-of-the ordinary problem like the impending lapsing of the funding of DAR activities by the end of December 2008.

Resolution l9 extends CARP for agricultural lands that are offered by their owners under the voluntary offer to sell (VOS) and under the voluntary land transfer (VLT) schemes.

It also authorizes the Department of Agrarian Reform Program to continue its support services to beneficiaries of lands that have already been acquired and distributed as of December 15, 2008.

The farmers said their stand that the resolution is unconstitutional is anchored on two grounds:

First, compulsory acquisition of lands cannot be suspended because it is mandated by the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Law itself.

Second, the presidential certification was flawed because it was specifically intended for a bill, and not for a resolution.

Pimentel said the farmers have every right to elevate the issue to the Supreme Court because without compulsory land acquisition, they believe that CARP will be diluted and therefore detrimental to their interest.

They believe it is contrary to the intent of the Constitution which provides that all agricultural lands should be subject to CARP, he said.

Pimentel said he opted to cast an affirmative vote for Joint Resolution l9 because during the floor deliberations, his understanding was that if the resolution was not passed, that meant CARP will be terminated.

He said he did not bother anymore with the nuances in the resolution that were cited by the farmers because our primary concern at that that time the last day of session before the Christmas break was whether to extend CARP or not.

In other words, my purpose was to save the agrarian reform law at least for six months. And after the lapse of six months, we could start discussing the amendments to the law on CARP, and not just passing a new resolution,? the minority leader explained.

In fact, Pimentel said he was batting for a longer extension of one year because he believed that the Department of Agrarian Reform needed more time to dispose of the backlog of pending land acquisition and distribution cases.

He said one prominent pending case is the 90-hectare Hacienda Bacan in Negros Occidental owned by the family of First Gentleman Jose Miguel Arroyo.

The Land Bank of the Philippines has already completed the valuation of the hacienda and made a cash deposit of P42.5 million as payment for the property. This means that as far as DAR and Land Bank were concerned, the case of Hacienda Bacan has already been disposed of and the property can be parceled out among the qualified farmer-beneficiaries.

However, the hacienda could not yet be transferred to the DAR because the provincial register of deeds of Negros Occidental has declined to cancel the existing ownership title to the property for a flimsy reason.

Pimentel said big agricultural estates like Hacienda Bacan, wherein all requirements for CARP coverage have been complied with, should be excluded from the suspension of compulsory land acquisition under Joint Resolution 19.

He said the other point raised by the farmers that the presidential certification was for a bill and not a resolution is a serious technical flaw that could not just be disregarded. Undeniably, he said this has bolstered the farmers argument to cast doubts on the constitutionality of Resolution 19.

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