Malacanang has called on Congress to pass two pending legislative measures: he Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) extension and the Right to Reply bills before it adjourns on June 6.
The CARP, the land redistribution scheme mandated by the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Law of 1988, or RA 6657, expired in December 2008.
The President certified the bill as urgent and was pushing for a 10-year extension of the CARP Law to 2018. This is to allow the government to fully cover the remaining two million hectares that will benefit an additional two million farmers nationwide.
The other bill—the Right to Reply, was passed on second reading by the House of Representatives last May 25. The Senate approved unanimously its version last December. (PIA)