Senator Imee Marcos today Sept. 15 said the one-year moratorium on farmers’ debt payments under the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program is a big relief.

‘’It is breakthrough in the long 50-year road to the emancipation of tenant farmers from the soil,’’ she said.

President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. on Tuesday approved a year-long moratorium on annual amortization and interest payments for lands distributed under the agrarian reform program in a move aimed at allowing farmers to focus on their productivity.

The moratorium, contained in an executive order (EO) signed by Marcos, would unburden farmers of their debts and allow them to use the money to maximize their production capacity, the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) said.

Senator Marcos said the timeliness of the moratorium amid a looming global food crisis would boost our farmers’ productivity and bring us closer to the goal of national food security.

‘’I share my brother’s eagerness to enhance what our father had envisioned back in October 1972, which now guides Congress to pass the relevant law,’’ she explained.

‘’I reiterate my position that our farmers have already paid their debts with their sweat and tears – even with their blood, in many instances – and that the government has sufficient sources of funding to afford the gratitude we have long owed them,’’ she added.