(MANILA BULLETIN)

Senator Cynthia Villar has welcomed President Ferdinand  ‘’Bongbong’’ Marcos Jr.’s signing into law of a bill condoning loans of farmers and agrarian reform beneficiaries (ARBs).

The President signed last Friday, July 7, Republic Act (RA) No.11953, or the New Agrarian Emancipation Act, which condones all principal and interests of loans of 610,054 ARBs arising from the award of agricultural lands under the government’s Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP).

“I thank President Marcos for prioritizing the needs of vulnerable populations in the agriculture sector. With this law, our farmers and their beneficiaries are being offered a fresh start, a way out in a cycle of debt and poverty,” Villar, who was the principal sponsor of the measure, said.

Villar stressed that condoning farmers' amortization "will provide them much-needed financial resources that shall help them develop their farms, increase their productivity, and advance an agriculture-driven economy to accelerate rural development and promote food security".

The chairperson of the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Food, and Agrarian Reform, said farmers and farmworkers have been anticipating the enactment of the measure, which would make possible their dream of receiving their land titles.

"Without land in their name, our farmers cannot access credit as they lack collateral to secure the same," Villar pointed out.

With the enactment, the P57.5-billion principal debt of 610,054 ARBs would be written off.

These ARBs till a total of 1,173,101.57 hectares of agrarian reform lands.

The principal loan of P14.5 billion, including interests, penalties and surcharges of 263,622 ARBs, tilling 409,206.91 hectares of agrarian reform lands, whose names and other loan details were already submitted by the Land Bank of the Philippines (LBP) to Congress, shall be condoned outright.

The inclusion of the remaining P43.057 billion loan would take effect upon submission by the LBP and the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) of details of the indebtedness to government of the 346,432 ARBs, tilling 763,894.66 hectares of agrarian reform lands.

Also, under the law, all cases related to the non-payment of loans of ARBs with the DAR shall be dismissed motu proprio. They will be exempted from payment of estate tax.

The law also mandates the inclusion of ARBs to the Department of Agriculture's (DA) Registry System for Basic Sectors in Agriculture, and will be provided with all support services for farmers.

"This law will help alleviate the plight of ARBs, who are farmers; for them to recover and overcome the fallout of the Covid-19 crisis, the devastating African swine fever, the ongoing avian influenza, the increasing cost of fertilizer, fuel, and other farm inputs, and climate change," Villar said.