The Task Force Mapalad farmer-beneficiaries and their families inside the 61-hectare farms in the village of Caranoche in Sta. Catalina town and the village of Villareal in Bayawan City. (AKP Images / Buck Pago) BAYAWAN CITY, Philippines (Mindanao Examiner / Nov. 12, 2008) – Philippine agrarian officials on Wednesday finally installed 30 farmers who are beneficiaries of the 61-hectare land in Negros Oriental province and this after almost a decade since they were issued their Certificates of Land Ownership Award (CLOA).
The farmers had been fighting for their rights to the lands they have tilled for many years now. The land in Bayawan City was formerly owned by the family of Herminio Teves, an ex-member of the House of Representatives.
The farmers earlier held a hunger protest and camped out of the property and office of the Department of Agrarian Reform with their families and supporters for more than two months over the government’s failure to install them as beneficiaries despite their land ownership certificates under the land reform program.
Rodolfo Inson, regional director of the Department of Agrarian Reform, escorted by policemen, has formally installed the farmers without any untoward incident.
Bayawan City Mayor Herman Saraña and Sta. Catalina Mayor Ruben Melodia together with the Teves lawyer witnessed the ceremony.
Rolando Flores, chairman of Villareal-Caranoche Agrarian Reform Farmers’ Association (VillaCARFA), said that the former solon after trying for 10 years to prevent distribution of the property finally relented and had also agreed to relinquish the standing crops to them.
“After all is said and done, everything ended just fine, at least for us. We can now leave the animosity and bitterness behind and move on,” Flores said.
The farmers’ organization called Task Force Mapalad, of which VillaCARFA is a member, said the victory of the farmer-beneficiaries proved that the only hope of the landless rural poor is through the process of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP).
“The farmer-beneficiaries of the former Teves property won because they fought with determination for the CARP process. Without CARP and the laws that guarantee their rights to own land, they could not have won the battle,” said Jose Rodito Angeles, the TFM president.
TFM farmers last week also trooped to the Philippine National Police headquarters in Manila and sought protection for their colleagues and families they were harassed by armed men.
Angeles said Congress should work diligently for the immediate passage of a law extending CARP beyond 2008. He said, however, that even if Congress fails to extend CARP, the peasant struggle for land will continue.
“We will find new grounds of engagement. The battle for land rights will not end with the demise of CARP,” he said. (With a report from Lani Factor)
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