Majority of the marchers who walked all the way from San Vicente, Sumilao, Bukidnon were not members of the Higa-onon tribe and not actual residents of San Vicente, the barangay where the disputed property was located, tribal source told The STAR yesterday.
“Except for a few marchers who spoke Higa-onon, most of the marchers spoke in fluent Tagalog or Visayan during media interviews” the source said.
In one of the press conferences, only the spokesman of the group spoke Higa-onon while the rest who belong to the support group does not understand the dialect.
The STAR tried to get the reaction of Heidi Fernandez, media coordinator of the support group of Lakas Mindanao, but there was no the response.
This developed as a former congressman and Cabinet secretary has urged Department of Agrarian Reform Secretary Nasser Pangandaman to do what his predecessor did — affirm the right of Sumilao farmers to their land and revoke the land conversion order issued in 1996 by Malacañang.
A press statement released by the support group of the farmers said that in a program following a mass held Friday night in front of the DAR central office in Quezon City, former DAR secretary Florencio “Butch” Abad said that Pangandaman does not really need more time to study the land case in Sumilao, Bukidnon involving a 144-hectare property.
“Why does he need more time to study the case when his predecessors were clear that the farmers have the right to claim the land? All he has to do is reiterate former DAR Secretary Ernesto Garilao’s decision,” said Abad, who was also a former education secretary.
Garilao in 1994 denied the petition for conversion of former landowner Norberto Quisumbing and awarded the 144 hectares in April 1995 to 137 farmers.
Quisumbing appealed to the Office of the President, and in March 1996 former Executive Secretary Ruben Torres reversed Garilao’s decision and approved the land conversion.
In 1999, the Supreme Court upheld Torres’ decision, which led to the cancellation of the certificates of land ownership award (CLOAs) issued by DAR to the farmers. – Perseus Echeminada