Cattle Raisers Up In Arms: DENR ups pasture lease by 1,000%

ALFONSO LISTA, Ifugao - Cattle raisers in the Cordillera and Cagayan Valley regions have raised a howl over an unnumbered order from the office of Environment and Natural Resources Secretary Antonio Cerilles increasing by 1,000 percent the annual pasture lease imposed on ranchers.

The order, issued by Cerilles last October and due for implementation this year, mandates an increase of annual pasture lease per hectare from P20 to P200.

Members of the Cordillera-Cagayan Valley Ranchers Association, in their first general assembly at Rancho Diego here last Sunday, aired their concern over Cerilles' order which they described as "arbitrary and unconscionable."

"Once Secretary Cerilles' order is implemented, sooner or later, we won't have a cattle industry to talk about," said former Ifugao Rep. Gualberto Lumauig.

Lumauig was elected president of the association which has 500 rancher-members in the two regions. He owns the 650-hectare Rancho Diego.

In its 1998 report, the Department of Agriculture said that next to Mindanao ranchers, cattle raisers in the Cordilleras and Cagayan Valley were the second largest producers of beef in the country, supplying about one-third of Metro Manila's beef requirements.

Lumauig, former spokesman of Lakas-NUCD, said the DENR failed to conduct any consultations before issuing the order.

The ranchers raised fears that Cerilles' order will have a negative effect on the cattle industry in the two regions, especially with the onset of the summer season.

He said the only way for ranchers to cope with the increased pasture lease is to stop raising cattle or give the pasture leases back to the government.

Joe Viloria, a 68-year-old rancher from Nueva Vizcaya, said the DENR order threatens to "disintegrate" the cattle industry.

"We don't deserve additional burden this time," said Judge Willy Tumaliuan, the association's vice president, adding that ranchers are already overburdened by government impositions and other "taxes" exacted on them by people "outside the government," referring to communist insurgents.

"The government should understand our plight," said Tuma-liuan, a Santiago City judge.

The association, whose members include former House Speaker Ramon Mitra, who maintains a ranch between Mt. Province and Ifugao, and big-time rancher Vergel de Dios, has asked President Estrada to defer the implementation of Cerilles' order.

The group said the order should be restudied to determine its effects on the cattle industry.

Lumauig vowed to seek an audience with the President to discuss the concerns of the ranchers who, he said, are "partners" of the Estrada administration's food security program.