The World - News from Jan. 31, 1988

The Philippines’ influential Catholic Bishops Conference expressed impatience at the slow pace of a land reform program signed into law last year, a church spokesman said. Reporting on the three-day annual meeting of the 100-member conference, Father Teodoro Buhain noted that the bishops last July issued a pastoral letter urging President Corazon Aquino to enact a program for landless farmers. The same month, Aquino signed legislation ordering that more than 9 million acres of farmland be given to 2.13 million farmers, an apparent bid to bridge the gap between rich and poor and to defuse an 18-year Communist insurgency. However, she left to Congress the sensitive issues of determining retention limits and priority in implementation of the program.