TUNGTONGAN TI AMIANAN

BAGUIO CITY, October 3, 2008 – The Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) in Northern Luzon convened the “Tungtongan Ti Amianan,” Ilokano for Conference of the North,” a solidarity conference on agrarian reform, which is aimed at strengthening and consolidating their commitment for the five-year extension of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP). The conference was the result of the CBCPs consultations with farmers and other sectors of society. It was participated in farmers from regions 1, 2, and CAR, also present were local government officials, leaders and representatives of various peoples’ organizations, etc.

The Conference also revealed the results of independent studies that have shown CARP to have improved the living conditions of farmer-beneficiaries and other stakeholders, particularly, support services amounting to Php5.4 billion in investments consisting of physical infrastructure, basic service services, etc., were delivered to around 338 agrarian reform communities in regions 1, 2 and the Cordilleras which benefited 924 grassroots organizations. However, the tasks is not yet done as there is still a about 1.1 million hectares of agricultural lands still to be acquired and distributed to farmer-beneficiaries, among other things. Other concerns include resolution agrarian justice cases, provision of support services such as farm to market roads, expansion of irrigation services, improved access to agricultural technology, access to credit, and other analogous services./cds