Contact Details

Rm. N-411, House of Representatives, Quezon City, Metro Manila, Philippines
+63 2 931 5497, +63 2 931 5001 local 7370

Press Statements
PRESS STATEMENT
17 December 2008

The exclusion of private agricultural lands which have already been subjected to notices of coverage under Section 16 (a) of Republic Act No. 6657 (Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Law) from the coverage of the proposed six-month extension under House Joint Resolution No. 29, as amended, is a simulated extension of the Land Acquisition and Distribution (LAD) component of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) and a virtual requiem for the program.

The joint resolution limited the extension’s coverage to lands under Voluntary Offer to Sell (VOS) and Voluntary Land Transfer (VLT) which consist of a smaller percentage of lands for acquisition and distribution and excluded private agricultural lands subject to the compulsory process which comprise the bulk of lands for distribution to landless farmers.

What is expiring at the end of the year is the LAD and any extension must include lands both for voluntary and compulsory coverage.

It is regrettable that the consensus in the House of Representatives during the all-member caucus is to limit the LAD to the volition and discretion of landowners by removing compulsory acquisition by the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) of the remaining CARPable lands.

This does not only dilute the program but dismembers the heart and soul of the CARP, which is the LAD, because if there is no compulsory acquisition, landowners who have long been resisting compulsory coverage will not volunteer to sell their lands or enter into voluntary land transfer arrangements with their tenants.

What happened this afternoon is a preview of the eventual demise of CARP.

Press Statements

I wish to make the following clarifications in response to Speaker Prospero Nograles’ concerns about my having possibly linked PGMA to the cha-cha initiatives:

  1. I never said in my written press statement that the initiatives for charter change are dictated or imposed by the Palace or PGMA;
  2. I principally addressed my plea to my majority coalition colleagues in the House to:
    1. recognize the limits of power;
    2. not try the people’s tolerance;
    3. to read the writing on the wall against pursuing cha-cha now instead of after the 2010 elections; and
    4. foreclose the possibility of an emerging divisive popular turmoil.
  3. I asked the President to stop the cha-cha initiatives considering (a) her being the effective head of the majority coalition and (b) the fact that she is the prime target of the tirades of the political opposition rejecting charter change; and
  4. I did not even mention about any projected extension of term of any public elected official but I only expressed the common sentiment of the people having grave suspicions of a possible hidden agenda.

Press Release

Rep. Edcel C. Lagman cautioned the proponents of charter change “to recognize the limits of power and not to try the people’s tolerance.”

Lagman asked his colleagues in the majority coalition “to read the writing on the wall against pursuing constitutional change now” even as he urged President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo “to halt the cha-cha express which is bound to perdition.”

“I have not signed and will not sign any bill or resolution for cha-cha before the 2010 elections,” Lagman said.

“Any proposal for a constitutional amendment in 2009 is too late in the day and will only engender grave suspicions on ahidden agenda and provoke inordinately divisive popular opposition,” Lagman added.

Lagman also said that even as he belongs to the majority coalition, he “cannot keep (his) peace in the case of an impending turmoil being fomented by cha-cha initiatives.”

 

Press Release

PRESS RELEASE
15 November 2008

 

Reproductive health advocates cautiously welcome as a positive development the offer of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) to dialogue with the authors of the pending RH bill provided that the proposed meeting “will not delay or prejudice the resumption and completion of the legislative process on the enactment of the measure.”

This was the consensus in a meeting of legislators and NGO representatives convened on 15 November 2008 by Rep. Edcel C. Lagman, the principal author of House Bill No. 5043 or the proposed “Reproductive Health, Responsible Parenthood and Population Development Act of 2008”.

Press Release

PRESS RELEASE
16 October 2008

SWS: 71% OF PINOYS SUPPORT
THE REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH BILL

The results of the Social Weather Stations’ (SWS) non-commissioned survey on the Reproductive Health bill reveal the overwhelming support of Filipinos for the passage of House Bill 5043 principally authored by Albay Representative Edcel Lagman.

Seventy-one percent of Filipinos endorse the enactment of a bill protecting and promoting the right to reproductive health, including information and access to all methods of family planning, and 76% favor the teaching of family planning to the youth.