Support services first,
Neg. Occ. solons say
ON CALLS TO EXTEND CARP NOW
BY CARLA GOMEZ

Negros Occidental congressmen yesterday said they support the call to provide support services to Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program beneficiaries first before further compulsory acquisition of land.

Enrique Rojas, president of the National Federation of Sugarcane Planters Inc., yesterday called on lawmakers who are deliberating on the bill extending CARP, to heed the clamor of millions of CARP beneficiaries to provide them with the necessary support services to make their awarded lands productive.  

“CARP extension should focus on the delivery of adequate support services so that the existing ARBs can increase the productivity of their awarded lands and, consequently, increase their family income.  Only then can the millions of existing ARBs feel the real essence of CARP which is people empowerment and social justice and equity,” Rojas said.

The town of Don Salvador Benedicto, which used to be haven of armed insurgents in the late 1980’s, is now the “summer capital” of Negros Occidental.

The Sangguniang Panlalawigan of Negros Occidental, yesterday approved, on third and final reading, an ordinance authored by Board Member Nehemias de la Cruz, making Don Salvador Benedicto town as the summer capital of the province, after it conducted a series of consultations and public hearings.

Don Salvador Benedicto town, about 47 kilometers northwest of Bacolod City, is known for its cool weather all year round, with some of the nature’s most beautiful tourist attractions abound, de la Cruz who also used to be the town mayor, said.

 “We will just decide when the right time comes.”

This was the reaction yesterday of Gov. Isidro Zayco to the statement of  Senate Majority Leader Juan Miguel Zubiri, Lakas CMD secretary general, that, as the highest elected official of Negros Occidental, under the equity of the incumbent principle, he will be the gubernatorial candidate of the merged Lakas CMD-Kabalikat ng Malayang Pilipino party.

“I am grateful for his (Zubiri) trust and confidence in me,” Zayco said, but he would not say whether he would run for governor in 2010 or not.