MOTION: The Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program of the Government should be abolished.

Affirmative Side:

The Philippine agrarian reform program is an epitome of failed promises and false expectations.
Even the advocates of the agrarian reform see the program as a failure. So do the landowners. Indeed,
CARP’s critics come from the full range of the political spectrum.

Agrarian reform cannot go on indefinitely. At some point it should stop and DAR that implements
it bows out of existence because there are simply no more agrarian lands to redistribute. It is a self-limiting
body whose demise should be the result of its task’s successful completion.

A good model might be that which systematically hears the plight of the beneficiaries nationwide
through representatives in every region, or that which removes or modifies strict conditions regarding the
use and disposal of the lands received by the beneficiaries, or both, and etc.. The need for continually
supporting the beneficiaries even after the last parcel of CARPable land was already distributed only
follows the logic that for the human race to persist, it is not enough that the mothers give birth to children;
they must nurture the children until they themselves are ready to be independent and self-sustaining.

Very far from the intent of the framers. The restrictive provisions of CARP do not really promote self-
determination or autonomy for the beneficiaries; and that is contrary to the intent of the framers in
incorporating social justice and agrarian reform provisions in the Constitution. They also fail to recognize
the need to vest political power (or participation and decision-making power) upon the beneficiaries as it
is another requisite to attain “social justice”.

The assertion of political power in the operation of the provisions of the recently-expired CARP
may not anymore be of use, but it may be valuable and relevant in case a new program or law would
actually be passed to babysit the panting beneficiaries and assist the puzzled but hopeful ones.

The heart of the 1987 Constitution is not our reaction against the Martial Law, the heart of the
Constitution is social justice. With the abolition of CARP we are getting nearing the core of the
Constitution and that is social justice.

Ladies and Gentlemen and members of this house. The affirmative wins this debate.