Let go C.R.O.S.S.R.O.A.D.S Jonathan De la Cruz 08/15/2010

Let go

C.R.O.S.S.R.O.A.D.S Jonathan De la Cruz 08/15/2010 Of course, it is easier said than done. I mean letting go of Hacienda Luisita the traditional way — actually distributing the land to accredited farmer beneficiaries. After all, If then President Cory Aquino whose centerpiece program in 1986 was “land for the landless” could not do it in her time how can we expect her son, P-Noy, to do it this time around given all the intervening developments since? The Cojuangco-Aquino heirs have probably tripled since (P-Noy says his family’s part of the hacienda at this time would be less than 5 percent), a good part of the land has been used for other purposes (we understand only about 4,000 plus hectares of the original 6,000 something are available for distribution) and, perhaps more ominously, the record of the CARPed lands remain spotty at best. We still have to get the actual score on the CARPed areas but we are told that, unlike in China, Taiwan and Japan, to name just three of the more successful ones, our agrarian reform program never really reached its full potential as a tool of economic development and social justice. In fine, instead of banishing the fears and dire predictions of the oppositors, the CARP’s record over the past 24 years gave them the traction and the experiential support to bolster their arguments. The promised “land for the landless” plan has fallen short of expectations. Which is why Congress passed the CARPer Law last year in the hope of breathing fresh air to this faltering social justice and economic development platform — a hope which President Aquino can nurse to fruition by taking his mother’s promised land for the landless to its logical conclusion at least as far as Hacienda Luisita is concerned. .... MORE Source:  The Daily Tribune URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20100815com5.html

COMMENTARY EDITORIAL Thrown to Basilan FRONTLINE Willing to throw out all focus China mudslides highlight cost of rapid economic growth BLURBAL THRUSTS Justice Del Castillo’s white knight C.R.O.S.S.R.O.A.D.S Let go VIEWPOINTS Mother Earth TABLETS OF STONE ‘Let’s move on'