Luisita farmers to hold campout at DAR

SAN FERNANDO, Pampanga, Philippines – Farmers from Hacienda Luisita and other agricultural estates nationwide will hold a weeklong campout at the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) in Quezon City starting today.

The “Kampuhan ng mga Magsasaka sa Hacienda sa Ilalim ng Hacienderong Pangulo” will last until Monday, June 10.

Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP) secretary-general Antonio Flores said the DAR is hiding the fact that 44 percent of lands allegedly distributed are public agricultural lands, not the lands of big landlords.

“In other words, almost two million hectares of public lands were sold by the government to poor farmers instead of distributing the lands for free. They are already public lands yet farmers had to pay for them,” he said.

Flores said farmers from Hacienda Luisita, Hacienda Looc and Hacienda Roxas in Batangas, Hacienda Yulo in Laguna, the vast haciendas in Bondoc peninsula, and Hacienda Araneta in Bulacan and Rizal provinces will join the campout.

“The hacienda farmers’ campout will show that after 25 years, the CARP is a total failure,” he said.

Flores said the claim of DAR that President Aquino has outdone the agrarian reform record of President Ferdinand Marcos is ridiculous.

“It’s one big joke,” he said.

Flores said Marcos’ Presidential Decree 27 is as bogus as Aquino’s Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program. 

“It only covered tenanted rice and corn lands,” he said.  “Ergo, lands devoted to cash crops like coco lands, sugar lands, and plantations like Hacienda Luisita were automatically exempted by Marcos from distribution. Even rice and corn lands without tenants can never be distributed.

“The truth is Aquino is basically the same or even worse than Marcos. Under Aquino today, rice and corn lands that were already distributed are being foreclosed and are now targets of anomalous infrastructure projects.”

Flores said foreclosure by Land Bank is now threatening lands in Nueva Ecija that farmers paid for under PD 27 of Marcos.

“Aquino’s CARP failed to distribute vast tracts of lands, haciendas, corporate farms, and TNC-controlled plantations like Hacienda Luisita, Hacienda Looc and Hacienda Roxas in Batangas, Hacienda Yulo in Laguna, the vast haciendas in Bondoc peninsula, Danding Cojuangco haciendas in Negros, and the Dole and Del Monte farms in Mindanao, among others,” he said.

Flores said DAR’s claim to have distributed 4.4 million hectares of land since the Marcos era is a farce.

“Many of these government-owned lands that were already paid for by farmer beneficiaries were repossessed by the government itself and were either sold or leased to landlords and private corporations, like the case of 8,650-hectare Hacienda Looc that was turned over by the Development Bank of the Philippines to the Assets Privatization Trust (APT) and was put into auction and sold by the latter to Bellevue Properties,” he said.

Flores said the DAR did not say how much land big landlords had acquired and how many farmer-beneficiaries were displaced.

“In fact, since 1987, the DAR’s hands alone are filled with agrarian cases totaling to 494,945,” he said. 

“Even the DAR’s so-called agrarian justice delivery and resolution of 391,653 agrarian disputes is a farce. The DAR failed to show how many cases were decided in favor of farmers and how many were appealed to higher courts.” 

Agrarian reform advocates are planning to hold demonstrations in the provinces to pressure the   administration to hasten the distribution of lands to  farmers.

Manila Auxiliary Bishop Broderick Pabillo said   groups like Task Force Mapalad are planning to hold demonstrations in the Negros provinces and in Mindanao on June 10.

“When President Aquino took power, government still had to distribute a total of 1,209,236 hectares to landless farmers,” he said.  “From July 2010 to December 2012, Malacañang was able to distribute only 251,876 hectares (representing a measly 21 percent), leaving a balance of 957,360 to be given away until the CARPER funding expires.”

– Ding Cervantes, Evelyn Macairan