Farmers eye ethics complaint
vs ‘Anti-CARP Trio’ in House

By Julius D. Mariveles

FIRST came the snails. The rotten veggies followed. And now, farmers crying for agrarian reform want to file a complaint before the Committee on Ethics and Privileges of the House of Representatives against lawmakers who seem keen to kill the program.

Filing suit against the legislators they accuse of causing undue delay in the passage of two laws that seek to speed up the implementation of land reform is an option that farmers plan to take.

The lead objection of their disaffection: House Majority Leader and Mandaluyong City Rep. Neptali “Boyet” Gonzales II, Rep. Alfredo “Abee” Benitez of the third district of Negros Occidental, and Rep. Jerry Treñas of the lone district of Iloilo City.

SUGARWORKERS in Negros Occidental, the sugar-producing capital of the Philippines, load and cut canes during the harvest season in 2011 | Photo by Julius D. Mariveles

Lawyer Armando D. Jarilla, national coordinator of Task Force Mapalad (TFM), says a complaint for grave abuse of authority and conduct unbecoming of a public official may be filed against the three lawmakers who had ben tagged by TFM the “Anti-CARP Triumvirate.”

“If nothing happens, we will do that,” Jarilla told PCIJ.

Various groups of farmers have named the three legislators to be consistently behind efforts to block House Bill No. 4296 and House Bill No. 4375 on the extension and expansion of CARP or the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program. A more recent law called CARPER, or the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Extension and Reforms, has extended CARP.

HB 4296 seeks to renew for two years the authority of the Department of Agrarian Reform to issue notices of coverage and funding support for private landholdings that have not yet been placed under CARP.

HB 4375, on the other hand, seeks to create an independent Agrarian Reform Commission to review the actual accomplishments of CARP and to investigate supposed shortcuts and violations of the agrarian reform law.

President Benigno S. Aquino III has yet to authorize HB4375 as a priority administration measure. No counterpart bill has been filed in the Senate.

THE HANDS of those who toil in the canefields of Negros Occidental | Photo by Julius D. Mariveles

According to Jarilla, TFM and other groups under the Sulong CARPER, a coalition of more than 30 non-government organizations monitoring the implementation of CARPER.

With the Congress scheduled to go on recess on March 20, TFM has stepped up its campaign calling for the immediate passage of HB 4296 and HB 4375.

Last Feb. 24, TFM members threw snails at the office of Majority Floor Leader Gonzales after he failed to show up for a dialogue.

Last week, TFM members dumped sacks of rotten vegetables before one of the gates of the Batasang Pambansa Complex where the House members hold office, to symbolize, they said, the “rotten conscience” of pro-landlord lawmakers behind efforts to block passage of the CARP-related bills.

A LANDLESS sugarworker from Negros Occidental during the Kalbuhan sa Batasan | Photo by Jimmy Domingo from TFM

Last March 9, TFM members staged a “Kalbuhan Sa Batasan” where 15 peasant women had their heads shaved to protest the delay in the passage of the bills. They were led by landless farmers from Negros Occidental, a province which hosts vast tracts of sugar plantations but also vast numbers of poor farmworkers.

Deliberate delay?

TFM has accused Gonzales, a member of Aquino’s Liberal Party coalition majority in the House, of deliberately failing to schedule HB 4296 for sponsorship and plenary debates for months now.

This is despite separate declarations by Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. and President Aquino that they are both fully committed to supporting the passage of the measures.

As the House Majority Leader and concurrent chairman of the Committee on Rules, Gonzales has mandate and power to direct the schedule and pace of floor deliberations on pending bills.

This much is clear from the definition of the functions of House leaders in the chamber’s official website.

HOUSE MAJORITY Floor Leader Neptali Gonzales II | Photo from gscs.edu.ph

In a dialogue last week with TFM legal counsel Christian Monsod and Archbishop Antonio Ledesma, Gonzales had assured that he will soon enroll the two bills for deliberation in the calendar the House, Jarilla says.

However, Gonzales also reportedly explained that he has yet to to talk to “three blocs” in the House to ensure that there will be a quorum, when the two bills move on to plenary.

By many accounts, these three House groups are the so-called Visayas bloc, composed of lawmakers mostly opposed to land reform; the Nationalist People’s Coalition bloc of businessman Eduardo “Danding” Cojuangco Jr., and the Makabayan bloc that is pushing for a different version of land reform.

Benitez and Treñas are part of the Visayas bloc. Benitez hails from a family of landlords in Negros Occidental, which has the largest number of private agricultural land (by hectares) that has not been distributed to farmers.

Jarilla says Gonzales’s assurance has not inspired confidence in TFM. “We are not satisfied with his explanation and if the bills will not be on the floor yet after the House resumes its session, we will be forced to file that complaint (before the Ethics Committee),” he adds.

To be sure, the House will be swamped with other important pending bills, notably the proposed Bangsamoro Basic Law and the Freedom of Information Bill when it resumes session on May 4, Jarilla says.

The legislative logjam, he notes, might result in a situation of slow death for the bills on agrarian reform. “It’s like the killing the bill softly.”

Denial, no answer

REP. ALBEE BENITEZ

Sought by PCIJ for comment on TFM’s assertion about him being part of the “Anti-CARP Triumvirate,” Benitez gave a quick reply. “How can I do that? I’m not a member of the committee of agrarian reform nor any committee handling CARP,” he said.

But it proved most difficult to track down Gonzales. No one was answering the phone at his office.

TFM’s plan to file suit before the House Committee on Ethics against the three legislators has a precedent.

In 2011, a ground crew of the Philippine Airlines, Sarah Bonnin-Ocampo, filed the complaint for serious misconduct, grave abuse of authority and conduct unbecoming of a public official against Volunteers Educators Rep. Eulogio Magsaysay. The lawmaker allegedly “dishonored” the complainant by calling her a “menopausal bitch.”

Magsaysay had apologized for the incident but there are no public reports on how the House Ethics Committee had resolved, or if it actually did, Bonnin’s complaint.

Rep. Joaquin M. Chipeco Jr. of Laguna’s second district is chair of the House Committee on Ethics and Privileges and a member of the ruling Liberal Party.

Treñas himself is one of the 23 members of the Committee that has “jurisdiction” on “all matters directly and principally relating to the duties, conduct, rights, privileges and immunities, dignity, integrity and reputation of the House and its Members.” – PCIJ, March 2015