MANILA – Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. waived off $1.04 billion in land-related debt owed by more than 500,000 farmers on Friday, aiming to enhance food production.
The “New Agrarian Emancipation Act” he signed into law cancelled all property-related debt owing by farmers who were allocated land on 30-year payment terms during a land reform programme in 1988 but were unable to pay.
“We know these farmers do not have the financial means to repay this massive debt.” So placing it on the government’s dime is the proper thing to do,” Marcos remarked at a signing ceremony at the presidential palace.
The write-off of the government-issued loans meant that “we are doing everything in order to feed our people,” he continued.
A statute passed in 1988 gave around 4.8 million hectares (11.9 million acres) of plots to over three million landless farmers.
The total amounted to 16% of the country’s land area.
The new legislation was passed by Congress because roughly 1.2 million hectares of redistributed farmland had gone payed for, and the farm sector’s contribution to the country’s economic production was declining.
The write-off will benefit nearly 610,000 land reform recipients while costing the government $1.04 billion (57.65 billion pesos), according to Marcos.
He added that the government will spend an additional 206 million pesos to compensate landowners whose properties were transferred to tenants.
“We need to revitalise the agricultural sector,” added Marcos, who also serves as agriculture minister.
Following his election last year, the archipelago nation saw food shortages and skyrocketing costs for farm goods such as onions and sugar, while imports of rice, a dietary mainstay, also increased.
Source: AFP