Tags: Government Offices, Politics
By Anna Valmero
QUEZON CITY, MANILA – Manila Auxiliary Bishop Broderick Pabillo is calling on incoming President Senator. Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III to pick former Commission on Elections chairman Christian Monsod to head the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR).
Pabillo is one of several Catholic bishops who joined the farmers’ campaign last year for the passage of Republic Act 9700, also known as the CARP extension law with reforms (CARPER).
“He worked hard for the cause of farmers and he knows the social justice provisions of the Constitution,” Pabillo says, referring to Monsod, a known agrarian reform advocate.
“We have already written to Noynoy regarding the nomination of Christian Monsod two weeks ago and we hope he seriously considers Monsod who is eligible because he campaigned for the passage of CARPER and he was among those who drafted the Implementing Rules and Regulations of the law,” Pabillo says in an interview.
“It is imperative for Aquino to choose a non-trapo (traditional politician) to head DAR or else the agency will again be used to fill in the pockets of the few, while farmers die of hunger while providing food for every Filipino table,” he adds.
According to him, the incoming Aquino administration needs someone who will uphold equity reform through land distribution and propel DAR to complete the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) within the five-year extension set by Republic Act 9700.
“We only have four years to implement the provision of land distribution to farmers of about 1.2 million hectares of farmlands,” Pabillo says. “Land reform has been a core program of his mother (former president Cory Aquino) back in the 1980s through Republic Act 6657 and we hope he stands by his promise that land reform and anti-corruption will be among his top agenda.”
Under the law, a farmer is entitled at least three hectares of farmland, according to Lanie Factor, national deputy coordinator of Task Force Mapalad. “But aside from the farmland, they are urging the provision of packages of support services that farmers can use for tilling the land,” Factor says in a phone interview.
Jose Rodito Angeles, chair of the peasant federation Task Force Mapalad, says Aquino should give priority to land distribution in Negros Occidental where the backlog of some 127,113 hectares – including properties of First Gentleman Jose Miguel Arroyo – ranks highest compared to others provinces.
Angeles said the land dispute in Negros Occidental have remained unresolved due to lack of political will of the administration of outgoing President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.
Pabillo says the Catholic Church, in close cooperation with civil society, is willing to support the new Aquino administration to fulfill the constitutional mandate of distributing land to landless tillers and thus alleviate poverty in the country side.
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