President Marcos condones P58 billion incurred by 600K farmers

MANILA, Philippines — President Marcos on July 7 signed a law that frees more than 600,000 Filipino farmers nationwide from agrarian arrears, as he reiterated his commitment to improve and modernize the agriculture sector.

Republic Act 11593 or the New Agrarian Emancipation Act condoned a total of P57.65 billion of unpaid amortizations, benefiting 610,054 farmers tilling more than 1.7 million hectares of agrarian reform lands.

In his speech, the President, who is also the agriculture secretary, stressed that “genuine agrarian emancipation” requires more than the distribution of land but also providing assistance and services to the farmers.

The principal loans valued at P14.5 billion of the 263,622 agrarian reform beneficiaries (ARBs), whose names and loan details were submitted by the Land Bank of the Philippines to Congress, shall be condoned outright.

The condonation of the remaining P43.06 billion in loans of 346,432 ARBs will take effect upon submission of the details of indebtedness of ARBs by Landbank and the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) to Congress.

The government will also assume the obligation for the payment of just compensation to landowners under the Voluntary Land Transfer or Direct Payment schemes for the benefit of 10,201 ARBs with total payables of P206.25 million.

The DAR said the payment will be coursed through the Agrarian Reform Fund.

“The national government will allocate funds for the Agrarian Reform Fund to be able to pay for the P58-billion debts to the Landbank,” according to the DAR Public Information Office.

Marcos also reiterated the need to further enable the sector through the provision of credit facilities, farm inputs and equipment and market access, including farm-to-market roads.

The government, he said, would also expedite efforts on individual titling, enhance the efficiency of agrarian case resolution systems and exert effort to train new generations of farmers.

Under existing agrarian laws, each agrarian reform beneficiary has to pay the cost of land given to him in 30 years with six percent interest, the President noted.

“It’s time to free them from this debt,” he said.

Marcos also allayed fears of massive selling of agrarian reform lands given to beneficiary-farmers, saying the government would be extending sufficient technical support to them.

He said that in the past, farmers were forced to sell their lands because they have no money to buy agricultural inputs.

Food security

The President also stressed the New Agrarian Emancipation Act would significantly boost the agriculture sector and his administration’s goal of attaining food security by improving local production.

He said that with the signing of the law, an additional one million hectares of idle farmlands can now be cultivated by the farmers.

Marcos added with more or less two and a half million hectares of land intended for palay production, adding almost one million hectares could enhance production.

“It’s a big thing. Just think it’s two and a half million hectares, more or less, planted to rice. Now, it will be three and a half million planted to rice, we’re not yet considering second, third cropping there,” he said partly in Filipino.

Distribution

Meanwhile, Federation of Free Farmers (FFF) Board chairman Leonardo Montemayor also called on Marcos and Congress to complete the distribution of some 600,000 to 700,000 hectares of land yet to be covered by the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP).

“The FFF welcomes and supports the new law that frees our farmers from payment of lands distributed to them under the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program.  At the same time, we call on Congress and the President to complete the distribution of … CARPable lands that had remained undistributed under the previous administration,” Montemayor said in a message to The STAR.

Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas chairman Danilo Ramos said that the next challenge for Marcos is to enact a new agrarian reform program that will replace CARP.

“We sincerely hope that farmer-beneficiaries will fully benefit from RA 11953 or the New Agrarian Emancipation Act, and will not turn out like the Ferdinand Marcos Sr-era Presidential Decree 27 that further burdened and deprived rice farmers of lands to till. However, only through the legislation of a new and genuine agrarian reform program that puts free land distribution as a central principle will correct the injustices of Marcos Sr’s PD 27,” Ramos said.

Hidden gem

House tax panel chief and Albay Rep. Joey Salceda said on July 7 that exemption from estate tax for agrarian reform beneficiaries is the “hidden gem” of the newly signed law.

Salceda underscored the law provides tax exemption to beneficiaries’ transfer of agrarian lands to their heirs.

According to Salceda, one of the reasons productivity from agrarian lands has “stagnated” is because beneficiaries cannot be transferred to the younger generation of farmers, because of “debts and the attached liens... because of estate tax.”

He noted this is “a forward-looking policy that encourages the rise of a new generation of farmers.”

“Great policy also looks to the future. It creates a better future. That is what this reform does, by including an estate tax exemption that will allow old farmers to transfer their land to a new generation,” he said.

Best, biggest

Federation of Free Workers national treasurer Alfredo Maranan said, “FFW joins farmer groups and other individuals who hail this Act as the Marcos administration’s ‘best and biggest accomplishment’ in its first year.”

“The Act promises to financially emancipate the farmers, freeing up resources that can be redirected towards achieving food security, marking a significant step forward in Philippine agriculture,” Maranan added.

Jun Ramirez, national vice president of FFW, said, “The government extended help to the billionaires for many years. Now, it’s time for the government to assist the poor who are debt-ridden.”

He added, “Just as we bailed out banks and other financial institutions, it is a matter of social justice to assist our farmers and workers who compose the majority of our population. This is emancipation on a massive scale, from the number of beneficiaries to the amount to be condoned.”

Gabriela Women’s Party Rep. Arlene Brosas lauded the enactment of the New Agrarian Emancipation Act, noting that agriculture has been “paralyzed and impaired by years of liberalization, privatization and deregulation, and is considered as the most underdeveloped sector of our economy.”

But Brosas also challenged Marcos to prioritize the creation of a new and genuinely redistributive agrarian reform program to implement the law. She also asked the President to heed the call of the farmers for government support and subsidies.

Senate President Juan Miguel Zubiri also thanked President Marcos for signing a law that will condone farmers’ unpaid debt.

“This is good news for our farmers because it will ease the burden from beneficiaries in the payments of their amortization, as they seek to reclaim the land they till,” Zubiri said in Filipino. — Bella Cariaso, Sheila Crisostomo, Rhodina Villanueva, Marc Jayson Cayabyab