PRESS RELEASE

02 June 2009

FARMERS HOLD STREET DANCE TO CELEBRATE SENATE PASSAGEOF CARP EXTENSION BILL, URGE HOUSE TO ADOPT SENATE BILL

Scores of farmers from Negros Occidental gathered outside the House of Representatives and held a street dance ala Masskara to welcome the passage last Monday of Senate Bill No. 2666 extending the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) for five years with a budget of P147 billion.

Masskara is a traditional Negrense dance festival in celebration of good harvest and expression of gratitude for bountiful blessings.

Donning masks and native costumes, and with bodies painted with slogans, the farmers belonging to the peasant federation Task Force Mapalad (TFM) also urged the House to adopt the Senate version of the CARP extension bill so that there will be no need for a bicameral discussion of the measure.

Edna Sobrecaray, TFM spokesperson, said there is no more time for the House to deliberate on its version of the CARP extension bill, so it may as well adopt the Senate version.

Sobrecaray called on Cebu Rep. Pablo Garcia to desist from further pursuing his amendments to the CARP extension bill and allow the bill to be passed immediately.

“Other congressmen who had been opposed to CARP had chosen to remain silent, but Congressman Garcia, last we looked, was still trying to interpolate on the bill despite lack of time,” said Sobrecaray.

She added: “Congressman Garcia is in his advanced age and may soon meet the Lord. We urge him to do one last good thing for the farmers—allow the passage of CARP extension bill. This is not a hard thing to do, if you come to think of it.”

Sobrecaray said the Senate version of the CARP extension bill is already acceptable, if only because it retained the compulsory acquisition (CA) scheme in land acquisition and distribution (LAD).

“The senators may not have included in the bill many of our suggested amendments, but they also did not include the killer amendments proposed by some of them, and for that we are grateful,” said Sobrecaray.

She particularly thanked Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel Jr. who she said steadfastly stood for the farmers.

“We are lucky to have a sympathizer in the person of Senator Pimentel. Without him, the passage of the CARP extension bill may have had some tougher times,” she said.

She added that they understood the abstention of both Senate Majority Leader Juan Miguel Zubiri and Senator Benigno Aquino III.

“We understand that they had to abstain out of delicadeza, because they belong to a landed family,” she said.