President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. recently signed into law R.A. 11953, or the New Agrarian Emancipation Bill, which aims to make the farmer-beneficiaries of the government’s agrarian reform program debt-free.

Senator Chiz Escudero, the principal author of the bill in the Senate, said RA 11953 will provide financial relief to thousands of agrarian reform beneficiaries (ARBs) who are struggling to make ends meet, “let alone pay the amortization, interests, penalties, and other surcharges on lands they have acquired under the CARP.”

Is this the first step in achieving more sustainable farms and higher income for Filipino farmers or will it worsen the condition of small farmers?