Press Release
June 12, 2009

Pia looks forward to a more "gender-sensitive" CARP extension law

Senator Pia S. Cayetano today expressed confidence that the approved bicameral version of the bill seeking to extend the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) by five more years would be more "gender-sensitive," particularly in recognizing equal rights for rural women in reaping the benefits of agrarian reform.

The measure is expected to be signed by the President soon following last week's approval of the reconciled Senate and House versions by the bicameral conference committee.

Cayetano, Chairperson of the Senate Committee on Social Justice, added that she looks forward to the implementation of a new law that would not only promote "agrarian justice," but also "gender fairness" in agrarian reform communities across the country.

"Women farmer-tenants, farm-workers and even seasonal workers would be given due recognition and empowered as rightful beneficiaries under the approved bicameral version," she declared.

The lady senator, a member of the minority bloc in the Senate panel to the bicameral conference committee, had vigorously pushed for amendments seeking to recognize equality between rural women and men under the coverage of CARP.

Cayetano also lobbied for the bicameral approval of provisions recognizing the invaluable contribution of rural women both at work and at home, making them evenly eligible for support programs and other extension services under CARP.

"The reconciled version seeks to accord equal recognition to the right of rural women as their male counterparts in owning property and availing of support services as agrarian reform beneficiaries," she noted.

"For instance, a tenant household headed by a female becomes evenly eligible to receive land as a household headed by a male breadwinner. Since this aspect was not highlighted in the previous CARP Law, several cases of gender discrimination had been reported in the redistribution of lands and in the delivery of support services."

The bicameral bill, she added, also mandates the creation of women's desks in all agrarian reform communities to allow women workers to push for gender-sensitive policies and pursue complaints of gender discrimination in the rural setting.

"While I do not have any false illusions that this new law would be able to correct all the serious flaws that have slowed down implementation of CARP in the last two decades, I'm still confident that enough safeguards had been factored in the bicameral version to advance the social objectives of the original law, albeit in the next five years," she concluded.

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