AGRARIAN REFORM REVISITED
By: Rene Espina
IN the midst of the controversy regarding the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Law (CARL) extension, let me go back to basics about the foundation of the said law. Our Constitution is of course the basis of the CARL under Article XIII- Social Justice and Human Rights, Sec. 4 of said article, Agrarian and Natural Resources Reform states that: ‘the state shall, by law undertake an Agrarian Reform Program founded on the right of farmers and regular farm workers, who are landless, to own directly or collectively the lands that they till or in the case of other farm workers, to receive the just fruits thereof.’ To give my readers the correct interpretation of said provision, I invite them to read the discussions of the constitutional commissioners in connection with the said provision. Anyway, after so much debate among the said commissioners, i.e. Maambong, Tadeo, and others, the true meaning of said provision was best stated in Filipino,
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