Farmers urge DENR to issue rule on Calatagan land classification

Farmers in two towns in Calatagan town in Batangas pressed the Department of Environment and Natural Resources to immediately issue a clarification on the disputed 507-hectare property, which is part of the more than 2, 000-hectare area that will be converted into mining use by a company planning to put a cement plant.

This, while farmers from Barangays Baha and Talibayog expressed disappointment on DENR Secretary Lito Atienza, whom they accuse of “double-talking” – allegedly doing the “exact opposite” of what his department has promised to do during a series of meetings with the representatives of the farmers and even the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR).

“It appears that Secretary Atienza has hardened his heart to our sacrifices. I cannot understand how a department can promise to do one thing and turn its back and do the opposite,” said Virgie Malaluan, spokesperson of the Baha-Talibayog farmers, who decided to transfer their camp-out protest from the DAR office along Elliptical Road to the DENR office along Visayas Avenue in Quezon City over the weekend.

According to Uper Aleroza, chairperson of the Pambansang Katipunan ng mga Samahan sa Kanayunan, Atienza has declared during a meeting with Lipa Archbishop Ramon Arguelles that the DENR has no intention of issuing a clarification of the classification of the 507-hectare land.

Aleroza said out that the DAR has required the DENR clarification on the disputed property so that it can take steps to protect the rights of the Baha-Talibayog farmers.

Aleroza said that Arguelles met with Atienza to register the Archbishop’s consistent position for the cancellation of the mineral production sharing agreement (MPSA) issued by the DENR to Asturias Chemical Industries Inc., and restoration of the rights of the agrarian reform beneficiaries.

“This is the exact opposite of what the DENR has committed to do in a series of meetings with the representatives of the farmers and even the DAR,” Aleroza said.

The protesting farmers have been waiting for over a month now for the government to step up efforts to distribute to them the 507 hectares of land. They have walked around 300 kms. from their homes in Calatagan and started their camp-out protest in front of the DAR office in Quezon City last April 29.

The Baha-Talibayog farmers are protesting the impending conversion of their land into mining use by Asturias. They have been claiming ownership of the 507-hectare land, as the area was awarded to them under the government’s agrarian reform program in 1989 and 1990.

The farmers also claimed to have already fully paid the land amortizations to complete the transfer of the land ownership to them under the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program.

They argued that Asturias managed to obtain the MPSA from the DENR in 1997 even when the DAR only decided that the contested area is “mineralized” in August 2000.

The farmers likewise said that the DAR decision came after it has already awarded emancipation patents (EPs) to 318 farmers through the CARP, covering the 507-hectare land formerly owned by Ceferino Ascue, a decade before.

In 2005, however, the Supreme Court upheld the DAR ruling that the disputed land was erroneously covered under P.D. 27. The SC said the area was “mineralized” as based also on the 1965 Bureau of Mines study, and DENR’s issuance of an MPSA and environmental compliance certificate (ECC) to Asturias.

Asturias was able to renew its mining permit on Dec. 21, 2007.