President Ferdinand R. Marcos, Jr. today signed into law the New Agrarian Emancipation Act which was principally authored by Senator Cynthia Villar.
The law or Republic Act (RA) No.11953, condones the unpaid debts of agrarian reform beneficiaries (ARBs) under the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) or from other agrarian reform programs and laws. This includes all unpaid amortisation, interests, penalties, and surcharges.
Condoning ARBs’ unpaid debts will allow farmers to focus their efforts on increasing the productivity of agrarian reform lands.
ARBs are farmers or farmworkers who were granted lands under Presidential Decree No. 27, Republic Act Nos. 6657 and 9700, and who have outstanding loan balances payable to the Land Bank of the Philippines (LBP) and to private landowners as of effectivity of this law. The LBP has certified a total amount of PHP 57.6 billion for condonation, benefiting 610,054 ARBs who are cultivating 1.173 million hectares of land.
The New Agrarian Emancipation Act is among the priority legislative measures by the President.
