Bill condoning CARP loans gets Senate approval

MANILA, Philippines — The Senate yesterday approved on third and final reading a bill that seeks to free farmers and agrarian reform beneficiaries (ARB) from debt accrued from loans under the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP).

The approved Senate Bill 1850 seeks to condone all principal and interests of loans from the award of agricultural lands under the CARP as of Dec. 31 last year.

“Many farmers who were beneficiaries of the agrarian reform program have been waiting for their titles, but they have been saddled by issues on how to pay their loans’ annual amortization, interests, including penalties and surcharges, which hinder full ownership over their land. Without land in their name, these farmers cannot access credit as they lack collateral to secure the same,” Sen. Cynthia Villar, who chairs the committees on agriculture, food and agrarian reform, and principal sponsor of the bill, said.

The measure was co-sponsored and co-authored by Senate President Pro Tempore Loren Legarda, Senate Majority Leader Joel Villanueva and Senators Sonny Angara, Nancy Binay, Ronald dela Rosa, Joseph Victor Ejercito, Francis Escudero, Jinggoy Estrada, Bong Go, Lito Lapid, Imee Marcos, Robinhood Padilla and Ramon Revilla Jr.

Once enacted into law, P57.5-billion principal debt of more than 610,054 ARBs, tilling a total of 1,173,101.57 hectares of agrarian reform lands will be written off.

The principal loan of P14.5 billion 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, will be condoned outright.

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

“This bill seeks to 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.

She added that condoning farmers’ amortization “will provide them much-needed financial resources that shall help them develop their farms, increase their productivity, advance an agriculture-driven economy, improve the lives and that of their families, reduce poverty, accelerate rural development and promote food security.”

Villanueva said the emancipation of agrarian reform beneficiaries from the debt burden is “necessary if we are to seriously address rural poverty and improve the lives of Filipino farmers.”

He added that the passage of the bill shows how the Senate recognizes the urgency of addressing the concerns of the agriculture sector.

“It is our hope that this important measure will help end the cyclical and generational poverty among our ARBs. The condonation of a total of P57.557-billion principal debt of 610,054 ARBs, tilling a total of 1.17 million hectares, shall emancipate them from debt burden and shall help them refocus their resources and energies instead to increasing their productivity and improving their lives,” the senator said.

The Senate also approved on third and final reading the bill amending Republic Act 11709, a nine-month-old law that fixed the term of numerous star-ranked officers holding certain posts in the Armed Forces that apparently led to disgruntlement in the military.