THE Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) on Friday urged President Arroyo to certify as urgent bills filed before Congress seeking to extend the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program beyond its expiration date in June 2008.

"We wish that she will certify this as a priority bill. It cannot be ignored that there is a need for the agrarian reform law to be extended as a social justice provision," said Archbishop Antonio Ledesma, chair of the CBCP-2nd National Rural Congress (NRC), in a press conference.

Ledesma said the call for CARP's extension is strongly backed by Catholic bishops and the land reform stakeholders themselves.

The CBCP in a statement raised the following points for consideration by lawmakers supporting CARP's extension: Mandate direct and physical distribution of all agricultural lands, as opposed to non-redistributive schemes; address policy and implementation problems that are obstacles to the completion of the program; establish the needed implementation structure for CARP's completion;

Provide the requisite appropriations of at least P50 billion; strengthen credit and support services to farmer beneficiaries; and include in congressional monitoring and oversight major stakeholders of CARP and the Department of Agrarian Reform's performance.

The CBCP said NRC information and studies showed that after 20 years of CARP, 1.3 million hectares of "CARPable" lands remain undistributed, mainly those held by landlords who have been resisting CARP since its inception.

DAR, meanwhile, said yesterday that it is looking at biofuel and corporate farming as an alternative way of implementing CARP.

DAR undersecretary for Policy, Planning and External Affairs Gerundio Madueno said tie-ups with corporate farming investors would maximize land use and farm machineries.

"If you are alone in marketing your produce, or if you only have one tractor, how would you till a 50-hectare land? In corporate farming, there is processing and technology transfer. If you are an individual farmer, you are limited by the means at your disposal but in joint ventures, what you produce would contribute to the national economy," Madueno said in Filipino.