DAR installs 360 beneficiaries at Negros Oriental farm

MANJUYOD, Negros Oriental – Agrarian Reform Secretary Horacio Morales Jr. led over the weekend the installation of 360 farmer-beneficiaries inside the 472.74-hectare Sycip farm here, allowing them to take full control of the property placed under the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) through the voluntary offer to sell (VOS) scheme.

This time, Morales did not have to seek police and military escorts as the festive air of peace and harmony prevailed between the heirs of Eusebio Sycip and members of the Sycip Plantation Farmworkers’ Multi-Purpose Cooperative.

"Before, we used to bring with us police and military escorts. This time there is no need for them mainly because of the harmonious relationship that exists between the Sycip farm management and the farmworkers," Morales said after handing over eight collective certificates of land ownership award (CLOAs) to the cooperative’s chairman, Catalino Cadalin.

Negros Oriental Gov. George Arnaiz described the turnover ceremony as "the first of its kind" for CARP in the province, where some landowners sometimes put up barricades to prevent DAR personnel and beneficiaries from entering their land.

Morales attributed the peaceful climate to the beneficiaries’ strong cooperative of 20 years. He commended them for being patient all those years, allowing the democratic process in the transfer of land to take its course.

Morales also cited the Sycip family for their full cooperation and for having a big heart for the poor. He said the commitment shown by the Sycip family to help the poor is "very commendable."

The Sycip Plantation Inc.’s board of directors decided in November 1998 to voluntarily offer to sell the property to the government for P112,577,511.20 after the farmworkers’ cooperative "opted for collective land ownership" and waived its right on 31 percent of the company.

Moises Sycip, the SPI’s general manager for the last 30 years, said he had a "mixed feeling" following the turnover ceremony.

"I feel sad somehow, but still I’m happy that the farm remains intact. At least it will not be parcelized and productivity will continue," he said.

Sycip said he is not worried that the farm, incorporated in 1952, is now in the hands of their former farmworkers.

"I know that they (farmer-beneficiaries) can manage the farm themselves because they are acquainted with all the management already, having been trained all these years," he added.

The Sycip farm used to be planted to sugarcane. At the height of the sugar crisis in the late 1980s, the management decided to venture into multi-cropping and animal-raising while maintaining at least 275 hectares for sugarcane.