ARCHBISHOP Angel Lag-dameo, president of the
Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines, on Tuesday
challenged the Department of Agrarian Reform to level the
playing field in the implementation of the Comprehensive
Agrarian Reform Program by going after non-complying landlords,
including those belonging to the Arroyo clan.
Lagdameo, at the conclusion yesterday of the
third bishops-legislators caucus at the Pius XII Center in
Manila which endorsed the extension of CARP, said DAR is
obligated to implement the CARP law and "it is not for us to
appeal but for the DAR to impose the law even on them
(Arroyos)."
The CBCP has been pushing for the extension
of the 20-year-old CARP law which is expiring this June with
almost two million hectares of private lands placed under
agrarian reform still undistributed by DAR. Lagdameo said DAR
will have to determine if the Arroyo properties are among these
two million hectares.
Farmers’ advocate Task Force Mapalad said the
conversion of three estates owned by the family of First
Gentleman Jose Miguel Arroyo has been pending at DAR since 2001
and the Arroyos meanwhile are converting their properties to
biofuel farms to evade CARP coverage.
TFM representative Edna Sobrecaray accused
DAR of protecting the presidential in-laws’ interests. She said
two of the estates, the 157-hectare Hacienda Bacan and the
16-hectare Hacienda Paraiso are titled under the First
Gentleman’s name while the 196-hectare Hacienda Grande is owned
by his uncle, Atty. Antonio Arroyo.
Cagayan de Oro Archbishop Antonio Ledesma,
head of the CBCP National Rural Congress, had earlier charged
the First Gentleman’s brother Negros Occidental Rep. Ignacio
Arroyo of blocking the passage in Congress of the law that would
extend CARP to protect landowners.
Akbayan Rep. Ana Theresita
Hontiveros-Baraquel challenged President Arroyo to lean on
Congress to pass the CARP extension and voluntarily subject her
in-laws’ properties under the program. "Now is the time for PGMA
to prove her commitment to the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform
Program through leading the way and distributing the Arroyo
lands."
Asked why the Arroyo estates have not been placed under CARP
coverage, DAR undersecretary Gerundio Madueño replied, "There is
a process for that; social justice is both for landowners and
farmers." – Gerard Naval and Randy Nobleza
