News Release
April 4, 2008
Reference: Ka Willy Marbella, internal deputy secretary general, KMP
 
KMP to bishops: Please reconsider CARP extension stand.
 
The militant Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas issued a plea to the 29 Catholic bishops who expressed support for the extension of the bogus Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) to reconsider their stand and at least read the Genuine Agrarian Reform Bill (GARB) or House Bill 3059.
 
According to Ka Willy Marbella , internal deputy secretary general of KMP, “we are asking the bishops to study the GARB so that they can find that it is superior to the CARP and that it is more politically and morally correct,”
 
“The bishops’ pro-CARP extension stand is also contradictory to the sentiments of the provincial and regional consultations for the National Rural Congress that they are calling for this July. Most consultation results are asking for the CARP to be scrapped. That is the true sentiment of the majority of farmers in the country side. CARP has made landlessness worse and more farmers impoverished,” said Marbella .
 
“CARP is beyond repair and it has to be buried. In 20 years it has made matters worse. Land reform programs should last not more than 5 years; there is no such thing as perennial land reform. If a land reform program is not finished in that span of time then it is a failure, more so if it lasted for 20 years and is still to be extended. If this happens like in the case of the CARP then genuine agrarian reform and social justice are being bastardized,” added the peasant leader.
 
“We are asking the bishops to reconsider because we do not want them to be part of those to be blamed for prolonging the suffering of peasants. We peasants have a very simple and righteous wish and that is the free distribution of land to our brethren, and that will not be achieved even if they extend CARP for a hundred years,” ended Marbella. # # #