Bishops back Negros farmers’ demand

TWO Catholic bishops have pledged support for marching Negros farmers who are demanding the full implementation of agrarian reform in 330 haciendas in the island.

Bacolod Bishops Vicente Navarra and Manila Auxiliary Bishop Broderick Pabillo, national director of the Catholic Bishops Conference’s National Secretariat for Social Action (NASSA), confirmed they will gather support for the farmers who are urging President Aquino to implement the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program Extension with Reforms (CARPER), which ends in 2014.

No less than 5,000 farmers from 19 Negros Occidental towns are pressing Agrarian Reform Secretary Virgilio de los Reyes to make good on his pledge to ensure the distribution of land to thousands of poor farmers who had been waiting for several decades to secure lands they can call their own.

Last year, DAR notched a 41 percent accomplishment rate in land distribution, a figure described by Task Force Mapalad (TFM) as “dismal” and the worst record for the department since it was organized.

Report from Tempo