President Corazon Aquino announcedgovernment plans to devote to land reform an estimated 24
billion pesos (about one billion U.S. Dlrs) raised from the
sale of failed businesses taken over by the government.
    Aquino said she was willing to have her family's sugar
estate broken up in compliance with Philippine land reform
programmes but hinted it would not be offered voluntarily.
    "Whatever laws will be enacted, I say that nobody is above
the law and that includes me. My brothers and sisters are
Filipino citizens ... We will abide by whatever laws are
enacted as far as sugar land is concerned," she told reporters.
    A committee was now formulating guidelines for the plan,
including the question of whether land operated by
multinational companies should also be covered, she added.
    Agrarian Reform Secretary Heherson Alvarez said recently
the government planned to distribute 9.7 mln hectares of land
to impoverished farmworkers under a revised land reform
programme.
    The plan, requiring about 1.7 billion dlrs, now also covers
sugar and coconut areas, apart from rice and corn lands, he
said. It was expected to benefit about three mln landless
peasants, he added.
    Land reform pressure groups have called on Aquino to break
up her family's 6,000-hectare sugar estate to demonstrate her
sincerity on the issue political analysts have called one of
the most pressing problems facing the Philippines.
    It was not known whether government would wait for the
Congress to convene by mid-year to formalise the programme or
have Aquino carry it out through an executive order.
    Under the plan, government will purchase land mainly from
landowners with holdings over seven hectares. It will include
vacant and untenanted farmland as well as 50,000 hectares
seized from former associates of deposed president Ferdinand
Marcos.
 REUTER
