The P58-billion proposed condonation on the monthly amortizations of agrarian reform beneficiaries will not affect the country’s gross domestic product, according to the Department of Agrarian Reform.
Secretary Conrado Estrella III said 650,000 farmers stand to benefit from the amnesty program that shall write off their unpaid land amortizations and corresponding interests.
President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., in his first State-of-the-Nation Address, urged lawmakers to approve a law amending Section 26 of Republic Act 6657 or the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Law of 1998 to liberate the farmers from heavy debt burdens.
“This (condonation) is a big deal to the farmers since instead of paying their lots, they can use it (money) for additional capital investment to improve their productivity and increase their income,” Estrella said.
He said the President is expected to sign an executive order on the one-year moratorium on the payments for the amortization and interest agrarian reform beneficiaries on his 65th birthday on Sept. 13.
Senator Imee Marcos earlier pitched legislative measures that would write off all loans of farmers secured under agrarian reform programs.
Marcos also announced that her brother, the President, will sign an executive order next week suspending payment upon the principal amount of loans to agrarian reform beneficiaries (ARBs) and declaring a moratorium until June 30, 2023.
“With these legal precedents upending our well-worn framework, the total condonation for the last remaining tenant farmers, their families and heirs is truly doable,” she said in a privilege speech.
The senator said she has filed Senate Bill Nos. 178 and 112 seeking to legislate “a complete write-off of all unpaid amortizations from loans secured under all agrarian reform programs.”
“Let there finally be land for all remaining qualified beneficiaries, for this indeed is the last mile of the Philippine agrarian reform program,” she said.
Marcos stressed the condonation “simply makes good financial sense” as it will generate savings for the government and the Land Bank of the Philippines (LBP) given that the administrative cost for the land reform program has been bigger than its annual collections.
She cited that in 2020, the LBP spent P1.95 billion for a collection of only P542.68 million.
Marcos said that if the condonation is “doable and viable,” then writing off all remaining agrarian reform debts is also a “desirable end.”
“At least 654,047 agrarian reform families will be granted a total of 1.35 million hectares of land, liberating the countryside from the burden of debt and despair,” she said.