Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, July 6) — President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. is set to sign on Friday the New Agrarian Emancipation Act that will condone over ₱57-billion worth of loans of more than 600,000 agrarian reform beneficiaries (ARBs).
While Marcos is signing the bill into law in Malacañan Palace, Agrarian Reform Secretary Conrado Estrella III will simultaneously lead the distribution of 32,441 land titles to 27,132 beneficiaries nationwide, the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) told CNN Philippines.
Marcos asked Congress during his first State of the Nation Address to pass the law writing off the debt burden incurred by farmers from land awarded to them under Presidential Decree 27, Republic Act 6657, and Republic Act 9700.
The proposed measure condones the amortization of principal payments, interest, and penalties on the land they are presently tilling, the DAR said.
It will benefit 610,054 ARBs, whose total payables are ₱57.55 billion to the Land Bank of the Philippines, it added.
The Senate said this covers a total of 1,173,101.575 hectares of agrarian reform lands.
\”The government will also assume the obligation of 10,201 ARBs tilling 11,531.24 hectares of land to pay the remaining balance of the direct compensation due the concerned landowners under the Voluntary Land Transfer (VLT) or the Direct Payment Scheme (DPS) amounting to ₱206,247,776.41 million,\” the DAR also said.
According to the Senate, DAR will issue a certificate of condonation, certificate of land ownership award, or on any other title based on applicable agrarian reform laws, and that the condonation shall lift all mortgage liens in favor of the national government.
The upper chamber, led by Sen. Cynthia Villar, chairperson of the Committee on Agriculture, Food, and Agrarian Reform, ratified the bicameral conference committee report on the divergent provisions of Senate Bill 1850 and House Bill 6336 on March 22.
After the ratification, Finance Secretary Benjamin Diokno expressed support to the bill, saying it was among the priority legislative measures presented by economic managers to the chief executive in a high-level discussion on solutions to cushion the effects of high inflation.
Albay Rep. Joey Salceda, one of the principal authors of the bill in the House of Representatives, said the New Agrarian Emancipation Act is the \”best and the biggest accomplishment\” of the Marcos administration.
\”It corrects one of the first errors of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program which was to tie down land,\” Salceda pointed out. \”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.\”
\”It’s also an important step towards rural and agrarian justice,\” he added. \”More than 69% of poverty in this country is rural.\”
\”Finally, they will be unburdened of their loans, interests, and penalties that contribute to their inability to overcome poverty, and are also major factors that have kept them from becoming fully productive,\” said Agri Party-list Rep. Wilbert Lee, also one of the bill’s principal authors in the lower chamber.
