Philippine land reform law being used to eject Central Luzon farmers

MANILA, Philippines- The country's extended land reform program is being used by agrarian reform officials not to distribute farms to landless farmers but eject them and deny their rightful claim to agricultural lands.

In a agrarian report furnished to all voices.com, the regional farmers’ group Alyansa ng mga Magbubukid sa Gitnang Luson (AMGL, Peasant Alliance in Central Luzon) and AMGL – Nueva Ecija scored the extended and "reform oriented" Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) ,which the alliance said was being used by the Dept. of Agrarian Reform (DAR) North Nueva Ecija, Provincial Agrarian Reform Adjudicator (PARAD) and speculators to eject small farmers cultivating the 82-hectares since 1991 at Brgy. Manggang Marikit, Guimba town in Nueva Ecija.

“Local DAR officials and speculators are colluding to eject the legitimate farmers, they are employing the municipal and provincial police, the military’s 81st Infantry Battalion (IBPA) but the legitimate farmers are standing their ground for their basic rights,” Joseph Canlas said, AMGL Chairperson in his agrarian update paper in Region III.

“This syndicate is also using the mob-for-hire group Alab Katipunan as they did last May 28 when they attempted to occupy the lands with the presence of local police and the military,” he added. The disputed lands were once part of Hacienda Davis covered by CARP when it was passed. DAR then leased the lands to a cotton plantation agro-corporation but it ceased operation in 1991. The lands became idle and non-productive, thus, 142 poor farmers from brgy. Manggang Marikit, Bagong Barrio and Yuson commenced in cultivating the lands. In 1995, the Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP) held its anniversary at Guimba as it served as a model for peasant struggle for genuine land reform.

The AMGL official noted that during the onslaught of Oplan Bantay Laya from 2005 to 2007, military abuses resulted to 1 case of extra-judicial killing, 2 enforced disappearances. The area has been documented for 1 terror-induced suicide of Merly Flores as she was a constant victim of military abuse, worse, his husband has been mentally ill. The military conducted many tactical interrogation among the farmers. In 2007, DAR has pushed in processing the claim of ListaSaka (list of farmer-beneficiaries) and attempted to displace the cultivating farmers. The ListaSaka was led by Pedro Esguerra and Cerelino Guimba.

The legitimate farmers said that these two were involved in selling lands such as the lot where a local church was constructed. They added that ListaSaka is funded by a relative of Esguerra interested in buying the lands. ListaSaka colluded with DAR officials to file an ejectment case against the local leader of legitimate farmers. Last year, the Municipal Agrarian Reform Office a(MARO), Provincial Agrarian Reform Office (PARO) and Land Bank set up a cooperative including those with ListaSaka and involving the disputed lands. Alongwith, the military established a detachment covering the said barangays and regularly maintained by 13 elements of the 81IBPA. Last May 28, ListaSaka accompanied with paid mob of Alab Katipunan attempted to occupy the lands causing skirmishes with the legitimate farmers.

The provincial police attempted to mediate a negotiation but the legitimate farmers preferred to raise the issue with the DAR Central Office in Quezon City as Guimba police chief Renato David is a cousin of ListaSaka’s Esguerra. On June 2, the dialogue between DAR national officials, ListaSaka and legitimate farmers resulted into the forming of a Task Force as ordered by the DAR III regional office this coming June 9. The forming of the Task Force to investigate the issue has been ordered by DAR III last March but PARO North Nueva Ecija pushed with the installation of ListaSaka.

The memorandum signed by Undersecretary for Field Operations Narciso Nieto mentioned to consider the legitimate farmers demand (1) to investigate alleged anomalies and lack of due proces, (2) to immediately stop the planned installation by PARO of farmer-beneficiaries, (3) ensure that the property they are cultivating is not a real estate area and (4) recognize their rights as actual tillers of the land. “The very root cause of this dispute is CARP itself as it was used by MARO and PARO to collude with ListaSaka. It is very clear that they are planning to cover the lands under CARP Extension with ‘Reforms’ where small farmers would not be able to pay amortization, thus, it would only lead to speculation by interested real estate developers. If only MARO and PARO have awarded the lands to the those cultivating the lands, conflict would then be avoided,” Canlas said.

“We also demand that the DAR national office should look deeper to this issue as agrarian reform officials have been working as a syndicate, brokering lands for interested buyers, at the cost of displacing farmers, this is the very futility of CARP as farmers’ rights could not be protected,” he added.

Luisita camp out

In Manila, farm workers inside the 6,453 hectare Hacienda Luisita are set to stage a 5-day camp out by the gate of the national office of DAR to press the immediate and free distribution of the sugar plantation ,which they said was illegaly acquired by the family of the late President Corazon Cojuangco Aquino. The Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP) and the Luisita based Unyon ng mga Manggagawa sa Agrikultura(UMA) on Sunday announced that farmworkers from Hacienda Luisita, the more than 6,000-hectare sugar estate owned by President Aquino’s family gear for a five-day “Peasants camp-out” starting tomorrow in protest of the 23rd year of the bogus Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) as amended by the CARP Extension with Reforms (CARPer).

KMP secretary general Danilo Ramos said “the peasants’ camp-out at DAR will also put pressure to the Supreme Court to finally decide in favor of the farmworkers on the Hacienda Luisita agrarian case” that is pending before the tribunal for over six years now.

Ramos said that “the sham CARP is the main culprit in the implementation of the onerous and one-sided stock distribution option (SDO) in Hacienda Luisita that strengthened the Cojuangcos control over the more than 6,000-hectare land and further deepened the poverty of the farmworkers.”

The SDO implemented in Hacienda Luisita in 1989 merely distributed corporate shares to beneficiaries, in lieu of land redistribution.

Ramos said “the scheme also allowed the land owner to continue controlling the use, disposition and benefit from the fruits of the land.”

“It gave the Cojuangcos the power to control and monopolize not only the lands but the whole process of production – from who will work on the Hacienda, what, when, where to plant and who will buy and where to sell the produce,” he said.

“In the 23 years of CARP, big landlords like the Cojuangcos made use of the very same law to evade genuine land distribution and deny farmers across the country of their rights to own the land,” says Ramos.

The peasant leader also cited that “under the CARP, the massive land-use conversion and corporate take-over of lands in the countryside led to the displacement of thousands of farmers from their farmlands.”

The KMP also announced that the Luisita farmers will be joined by farmers from the provinces of Bulacan and Rizal who are facing agrarian cases. Peasant-led protest actions will also be held Trece Martirez in Cavite, Calamba City in Laguna,Balayan in Batangas, and in Daraga, Albay in Bicol and in other major urban centers this week and will culminate on June 10.