Leftist Solons vs CARP Extension, Warn of Worse Food Crisis

MANILA, Philippines -- A worse rice crisis could loom if the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) is extended, leftist lawmakers warned Tuesday as the House of Representatives prepared to deliberate proposals to extend the program.

"We need to learn our lessons. Extending the failed CARP will spell disaster," Representatives Liza Maza and Luz Ilagan of the party-list group Gabriela said in a joint statement.

Maza said the implementation of CARP led to "the conversion of rice and corn crops to so-called cash crops" or the conversion of agricultural lands to industrial and residential lands.

She cited National Statistics Office data showing a decrease in farmlands from 9.9 million to 9.7 million hectares from 1991 to 2002, while lands planted to palay (unhusked rice) fell from 4.13 million to 4 million hectares from 2004 to 2005.

Maza also said land ownership by corporations and elite families has persisted because of CARP.

Ilagan cited the case of South Cotabato, where she blamed CARP for a shift in the province’s focus from rice production to pineapples, bananas, asparagus and papaya for export.

"To think that Mindanao used to be able to produce enough rice not just for the island but for the provinces in the Visayas as well. Now we cannot even meet our own demands for rice," Ilagan said.

Ilagan added that corporations like DOLE, Global Fruit, Blooming Petals and Upland Banana Corporation benefited from this shift in production.

The Gabriela solons vowed to oppose the extension of CARP and push instead for the approval of House Bill 3059 or the Genuine Agrarian Reform Bill "to allow landless peasants access to land, irrigation and support for farm implements, as well as fair market pricing of their produce."

Rachel Hermosura, contributor