(Keith Bacongco/ MANILA BULLETIN)



Albay 2nd district Rep. Joey  Salceda and  AGRI Party-list Rep. Wilbert T. Lee are highly anticipating the enactment of the proposed New Agrarian Emancipation Act, which both believe will be a boon to the agriculture sector. The measure--already enrolled by the House of Representatives and Senate is expected to be signed tomorrow, Friday, July 7, by President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. “This will be the hallmark of the Marcos administration’s inaugural year in office. It’s historic in scale, in worldview, and in what it will bring to the people,” Salceda said. “We often abuse the word 'landmark' legislation a lot. But that is what this bill is. Landmark legislation. It corrects one of the first errors of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP)–which was to tie down land. When, really, as owners of the land, farmers have a right to be able to use and, if necessary, convey it to the best users," he noted. The measure seeks to condone P58.125 billion in agrarian arrears benefiting 654,000 agrarian reform beneficiaries (ARBs). The coverage is a total of 1.18 million hectares of awarded lands. “Condonation of ARB debts could result in increase in productivity of between 23.8 percent (as the market can now allocate the land more efficiently) and 38.3 percent if productivity-enhancing interventions are increased (which the bill proposes) among the lands condoned,” Salceda, chairman of the House Committee on Ways and Means, said. Lee, a principal author of the House version of the measure, agreed with his fellow Bicol solon. The new law, he said, would allow farmers to further increase their productivity by providing them additional financial resources through the condonation of their annual amortization and interests, including penalties or surcharges. “By eliminating their debt, our farmers can focus more on their land. They would be able to devote the resources they would otherwise have used to pay off debts for the development of their land and the improvement of their farming practices," he explained. The measure also mandates the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) to issue, whenever necessary, a Certificate of Land Ownership Award (CLOA), or any other title based on the applicable agrarian reform law, and provides that condonation shall lift all mortgage liens in favor of the national government, as represented by the Land Bank of the Philippines (LBP), attached to the land acquired. Moreover, it exempts the agrarian reform lands of ARBs, as estates, from the payment of estate tax. “So, this law, in every sense of the word, is emancipation. Emancipation of farmers from debt. Emancipation of rural areas from a destiny of poverty. Emancipation of land from perpetual idleness,” Salceda furher said.