MANILA MEETING WITH DONORS ON LAND REFORM RESET
Philippine officials will meet major aid
donors in May to discuss a 500 mln dlr funding for an extensive
land reform program, Finance Minister Jaime Ongpin said.
    He told a news conference he had planned to sit down with a
consultative group of major donors led by the World Bank late
this month in Tokyo but said the documentation of the project
would not be ready until the end of this month.
    "The World Bank has recommended that we meet some time in
the second half of May because it is pointless to have that
meeting unless the participants have had adequate time to
review the documentation," he said.
    Government officials said the progam, estimated to cost 36
billion pesos, aims to distribute 9.7 mln hectares of land,
including some 50,000 hectares seized from former associates of
deposed President Ferdinand Marcos.
    The new plan will include not only rice and corn land but
also sugar and coconut plantations. It is expected to benefit
about three mln impoverished peasants.
    Ongpin said earlier there was strong interest in the
program from donors but said given the substantial financial
requirements of the plan, the government could not rely on only
one source but on a combination of sources.
    President Corazon Aquino approved last month the use of an
estimated 20 billion pesos from the proceeds of the sale of
certain non-performing assets to private companies.
    Ongpin said he has asked Aquino to consider two other
sources, namely the proceeds from the sale of government
corporations which are to be privatised and proceeds from the
liquidation of seized Marcos-related assets.
    He also said he would recommend public hearings before such
a big project was legislated.
    "If we get a good reception in the public hearings, perhaps
then the President might feel persuaded that it is not
necessary to wait for the Congress," he said.
    Aquino had said she would prefer that legislation for the
program be approved by a two-house Congress, whose members will
be elected on May 11.
    But her advisers are trying to persuade her to implement
the program before the Congress convenes in July.
 REUTER
