NEWSFLASH

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SOLON WANTS LAND REFORM SCRAPPED

Bacolod City, Dec. 29, 1997 - Negros Oriental Representative Miguel Romero is urging the government to scrap the 10-year-old Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program, which he says is a failure.

Romero said CARP failed to equally redistribute land to agricultural workers and the government failed to provide farmers with technical and financial assistance.

"Of 4-million hectares of land redistributed to CARP beneficiaries, 2.8 million hectares which were formerly productive now lie idle and the farmer beneficiaries have given back the titles to the original landowners," Romero said.

The beneficiaries, Romero said, did not receive management advice and basic support services, so they opted instead to lease back their lands to the original owners.

"The more we redistribute land, the more people we push into misery," Romero said.

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