MALACAÑANG gained Congressional support for the extension of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) law.

Deputy Presidential Spokesperson Lorelei Fajardo said Senate and House leaderships vowed in meeting on Monday to prioritize the proposed extension of the law that President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo had certified as urgent.
CARP law will expire this month.

Among those who attended the meeting were Agrarian Reform Secretary Nasser Pangandaman members of the House of Representatives led by Speaker Prospero Nograles, Senate Agrarian Reform Committee Chair Gringo Honasan and members of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP).

The President is seeking a 10-year extension of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Law (CARL) to 2018 to allow government to fully cover the remaining two million hectares that would benefit an additional two million farmers.

Some seven million hectares have already been placed under CARP since 1988, benefiting more than four million farmers.

The President said the extension of the CARP law would not only emancipate but empower more farmers to become agribusinessmen.