DAR Samar fears end of CARP, urges massive support

By NINFA B. QUIRANTE (PIA Samar)
June 16, 2007

CATBALOGAN, Samar  –  The Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) Samar Provincial Agrarian Reform Officer (PARO) Gregorio Fiel, Jr. and other DAR officials fear that come 2008, as the law mandated, the Comprehensive Agrarian reform Program (CARP)  will cease to exist.

In a press conference held Tuesday, in the occasion of CARP’s 19th Anniversary, PARO Fiel, PARO1 Bernardino Bacurro, Engr. Cresencio Misagal and Iñigo Dacuag faced the local media and expressed the concern.

In Samar, Fiel said some 30 thousand hectares of land have still to be distributed. He admitted though that the paperwork is dragging because of some land owners who have gone abroad. This causes delay in processing of documents, he stressed.

With the remaining one year, he said they would only be able to distribute ten hectares, he added.

The least extension they need, he said is seven years and P10B for them to complete their job.

Everything is not that gloomy though, PARO said, they are counting some congressmen as their allies to support the bill earlier filed for CARP’s extension.

There could also be a seat allotted to Alliance for Rural Concerns (ARC) Party list also supportive of DAR and CARP.

Fiel also mentioned two senators, one is Ralph Recto (who incidentally lost) who are supportive to their cause.

As of presstime though, Fiel felt elated when he read in the newspaper about a statement of DAR’s Secretary Nasser Pangandaman.

Pangandaman as reported by PDI said that President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo has promised to certify as urgent a bill seeking to to extend CARP for another ten years.