(Eagle News)–Senator Imee Marcos wants all unpaid amortizations, interest payments, and penalties or surcharges from loans secured by agrarian reform beneficiaries under the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program written off.
In proposing Senate Bill No. 849, or the “Emancipation of Tenants Act of 2019,” Marcos noted that agrarian reform beneficiaries have resorted to engaging the services of informal lending channels to pay “onerous interest on production loans, leaving them with little money to spend on improving their capital stock.”
She said this was because the beneficiaries were only given Certificate of Land Ownership Awards, which they cannot use as collaterals for bank loans for a period of 10 years.
As of June 30, she said the beneficiaries have to pay a total of P64.48 billion in order to acquire 1.6 million hectares of land which were acquired through the Land Bank.
She said in addition to the P64.48 billion due to be amortized by the farmers, there are remaining 548,467 hectares of land that will be acquired.
“Writing off the agrarian reform-related receivables of the Landbank is in line with the principles of agrarian reform law, which is to uphold the welfare of landless farmers,” Marcos said.
She noted that the Social Security System has already written off P9.5 billion worth of loan penalties just this year alone.
“The attention to agricultural production, rural development and land reform will address the 60 percent of the country’s poor in the agriculture sector and the 40 percent located in Mindanao,” she added.
