The Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program extension with reforms should be stopped, to end land monopoly and social injustices, Greg Ratin, KMP spokesperson, yesterday said at a rally in front of the Department of Agrarian Reform provincial office.
The 2nd anniversary of the signing of the Republic Act 9700 or the CARPer Law today is not worth celebrating because it has not addressed the problems of small farmers, Ratin said.
“CARPer should be immediately replaced with the genuine agrarian reform with the passage of House Bill 374 or the Genuine Agrarian Reform Bill,” adding that CARPer only granted more benefits to the landowners than to the farmer-beneficiaries, he said.
Ratin also said CARPer gives more leeway for landholdings to evade coverage, justify land use conversions, and it only worsens agrarian cases.
Around 300 militant farmers joined the rally.
Meanwhile, in Manila, KMP organized a protest-rally yesterday at Mendiola Bridge that was followed by a caravan going to Hacienda Luisita.
In a statement sent to DAILY STAR, KMP secretary general Danilo Ramos said that Mendiola and Hacienda Luisita are both turning points in the Filipino peasantry’s historical struggle for genuine land reform.
He said the caravan aims to deliver strong message to President Benigno Aquino III that the government’s CARPer failed to address the peasantry’s demand for land and there is a the need for a new land reform program. *LTG