MANILA (Mindanao Examiner / June 4, 2013) – Filipino peasant groups and various farmers’ organizations have criticized President Benigno Aquino for his failure to fully implement the distribution of nearly one million hectares of land under the government’s Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program Extension with Reforms or CARPER.
Aquino last year had promised farmers that he would hasten the implementation of the land reform law. When Aquino took power in 2010, government still had to distribute a total of 1,209,236 hectares to landless farmers.
From July 2010 to December 2012, Aquino was only able to distribute 251,876 hectares or about 21%. The CARPER expires on June 14 next year and there is no sign that Aquino would ever complete the land distribution.
Farmers’ groups said the Aquino administration is the worst performer as far as land acquisition and distribution since the CARP was launched by his mother, then President Corazon Aquino. (Mindanao Examiner)
20