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Condoning the debt of agrarian reform beneficiaries worth P57 billion will not affect the government's fiscal position, Finance Secretary Benjamin Diokno said Friday.

Diokno made this announcement after President Ferdinand Marcos, Jr. signed the New Agrarian Emancipation Act or Republic Act No. 11953, which condones the unpaid amortizations of the principal debt, including surcharges and interests, for awarded lands of more than 610,000 farmers.

“This will not affect the fiscal picture of the government because we have planned our target deficit and revenues for the next five years. This is not part of the computation,” Diokno told reporters.

He said that the newly-signed law was part of the government’s social justice function since it was meant to help agrarian reform beneficiaries.

“When you run a government, you don’t just think of the efficiency, you also have to consider the social justice aspect. So this will fall under social justice,” he said.

Marcos said the law would provide relief to farmers who have waited for it for a “very, very long time.”

He said that it was vital to check on the financial situation of farmers since they were an important part of the economy and the country’s survival.

“We have been talking about this for a decade and that everyone seemed to agree that it was time for us to look very closely on the financial situation not of the banks, not of the financing institutions but of our farmers,” he said.

“And so, it has been the general consensus that there is no reason for us to continue to chase the unpaid loans, the unpaid benefits that have ballooned over the many, many years, and so, to wipe the slate clean,” he added.

“And for our agrarian reform beneficiaries, there are two parts to this: number one, was the resolution of the actual titling of the so-called consolidated CLOAs (Certificate of Land Ownership Awards). Having started to undertake that process, we then were able now to perfect the titles for our agrarian reform beneficiaries,” Marcos said.

“But what would that do if the land you give them buries them in debt? They wouldn’t be able to recover so we should give it to them,” he said, stressing that the agricultural sector was important for the economy and the country’s survival.

Marcos assured the beneficiaries that they would be given livelihood and support.

“And that’s what this does, because now we are recognizing and bringing into the whole system of our economy our agrarian reform beneficiaries giving them not only livelihood, giving their families hope for the future but also the support that we, in government, and the rest of the country need for their agricultural hard work,” he said. Jaspearl Tan/DMS