Task Force Mapalad yesterday scored the survey commissioned by the Negros Occidental provincial government to find out the status of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program in the province, saying it depicts CARP as a failing government program.

In a press release, TFM president Rodito Angeles said they are questioning the results of the survey because they are tainted by vested interests. The results also need to be verified by independent and capable researchers.

"We question the motive of the survey because it seems to have been designed to lead to the wrong conclusion that CARP is a failure and should not be extended beyond 2008," Angeles said in the press release. Even if the survey results have some degree of truth, they do not by themselves prove that CARP is a failure, he added.

Gov. Joseph Marañon said the survey was conducted to find out the status of the CARP beneficiaries and the results showed that about 41 percent are no longer tilling the land given to them.

The governor stressed he is not against CARP and he believes in the vision of the program. What is lacking in the land distribution program he said are the support systems for the beneficiaries. What is important in every program is its implementation and not just the program itself, Marañon said.

The TFM, in the press release, said that cases of inefficient or erroneous CARP implementation do not necessarily mean failure of the program. Failed implementation and failure of the program are two different things, the TFM said.

The peasant group added that the survey of the provincial government is one-sided and it focused on the negative aspects of CARP and on the failure of government to provide support services to the beneficiaries.

"We hope that the survey will be fair enough to cite not only the failures but also the success of many farmer beneficiaries," the press release said.*NAB

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