THE enactment of the law condoning the debts of farmers is a “legacy legislation” that President Marcos Jr. can mention in his second State of the Nation Address (SONA) on July 24, Speaker Martin Romualdez said yesterday.
Republic Act No. 19953, or the New Agrarian Emancipation Act, was signed by the President last Friday.
“It is indeed a legacy legislation that will benefit not only the beneficiaries of the agrarian reform program but their families, their communities and the whole nation as well,” Romualdez said.
RA 11953 condones P57.56 billion worth of debt of 610,054 agrarian reform beneficiaries (ARBs) who are cultivating a total of 1.173 million hectares of land.
These farmers are beneficiaries of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP).
With their debts written off, Romualdez said hundreds of thousands of farmers will now have extra resources to spend on food, education, shelter, wellness, and other family expenses that they would otherwise forego.
Under the new law, the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) will issue Certificates of Condonation in favor of ARBs, which shall be annotated on the Emancipation Patent (EP) or Certificate of Land Ownership Award (CLOA), as the case may be.
When the condonation takes effect, the appropriate Registry of Deeds shall register the EP, CLOA, or any other title pursuant to the applicable agrarian reform law, along with the annotation of the Notice of Condonation.
“For me, this is the true intent of agrarian reform, for our farmers to own the land they till and for them to cultivate it without the burden of debt. It has now become a reality for more than 600,000 of our farmers with the signing of the law,” Romualdez said.
Camarines Sur Rep. Luis Raymund Villafuerte said the condonation of the farmers’ CARP debts puts flesh to a provision of RA 11494 or the “Bayanihan to Recover as One Act” or Bayanihan 2 which aims to give financial relief to ARBs during the state of calamity declared by then President Duterte at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Under Section 4 of RA 11494, “the payment of interests, penalties and surcharges of loans used for land acquisition to any and all government agencies and government-owned or -controlled corporations (GOCCs), including Land Bank of the Philippines (LandBank), shall be condoned and the remaining original principal value be restructured without interest thereon,” said Villafuerte, who was also the principal author in the House of RA 11469 or the “Bayanihan to Heal As One Act.”
