By Carla P Gomez
January 4, 2009 - The Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Law expired on Dec. 31 so there can be no legal movement of the CARP, Rep. Jose Carlos Lacson (Neg. Occidental, 3rd District) said yesterday.
That is because the president has not signed the joint resolution passed by the Senate and House extending the program for six months, minus the compulsory acquisition of land, he said.
Implementation of CARP from here on will only have a legal effect if the president signs the joint resolution, or when it lapses into force of law on Jan. 22, he said.
Malacañang has said that the President would let the joint resolution lapse into law, which takes place 30 days after the Office of the President receives the measure.
"Even if the President allows the joint resolution to lapse into law by January 22, or 30 days after the enrolled copy of the joint resolution was officially received by the Office of the President on Dec. 23, 2008, there is no more LAD (land acquisition and distribution) to extend because it has already expired earlier. Once the deadline sought to be extended has expired, no belated extension could be effected," Albay Rep. Edcel Lagman said in a statement.
Lagman urged the House of Representatives to convert his pending CARP extension bill into one reviving the program's land acquisition and distribution component, including compulsory acquisition. His bill had sought to extend CARP for five years and provide it with a P100-billion budget.
Anakpawis party-list Representative Rafael “Ka Paeng” Mariano in a statement he issued yesterday said that House Bill 4077 cannot be converted into a land acquisition and distribution revival measure and resurrect the dead CARP.
“House Bill 4077 cannot resurrect the bogus CARP from the dead. It is long overdue to send this bill to the legislative archives,” Mariano said.”
“The sham CARP already expired. They should file a new agrarian reform bill, let it go through the legislative process, and not simply convert HB 4077 into a substitute bill,” Mariano said.
Mariano appealed to Lagman and the House leadership to discuss House Bill 3059, a new and Genuine Agrarian Reform Bill pending before the House and “make it a priority legislative measure to enact a new, genuine, thoroughgoing and redistributive land reform program.”
The GARB aims to cover all agricultural lands, without exemption and exclusion, and the free distribution of lands to farmers as its central goal. Within five years from the effectivity of the measure, the Department of Agrarian Reform is mandated to complete distributing land to beneficiaries, he said.*CPG
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