NEGROS OCCIDENTAL, Philippines (Mindanao Examiner / Nov. 22, 2008) - Philippine farmers seeking the distribution of the Arroyo-owned Hacienda Bacan in the village of Guintubhan in Negros Occidental's Isabela town have reminded the President of her promise to distribute hacienda lands under the agrarian reform program.
But until now, Arroyo has not acted on her promise and peasants were demanding equatable distribution of the farm lands.
Jose Rodito Angeles, president of the peasant federation Task Force Mapalad (TFM), said Arroyo publicly made assurance last July that the 155-hectare hacienda would be distributed under the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP).
Arroyo made the announcement after a group of farmers slipped past Malacañang security and held a lightning rally demanding the distribution of “Arroyo lands.”
Angeles, however, said that despite Arroyo’s public announcement, the family-owned Rivulet Agro-Industrial Corporation, which manages the hacienda, put up a strong resistance against CARP.
“Rivulet Corporation tried every step of the way to stop the CARP process in Hacienda Bacan. It tried to stop the Land Bank [of the Philippines ] from issuing a memorandum of valuation of the property. Then it tried to stop the bank from issuing the certificate of cash deposit. Now, it is trying to prevent the registration of CLOA [certificate of landownership award) of farmers with the Register of Deeds (ROD).
He said the ROD in Bacolod City refused to register the CLOA generated by the DAR provincial office unless the Land Bank revokes the certificate of cash deposit (COD) it issued in favor of Rivulet Corporation and issue another COD in the name of First Gentleman Mike Arroyo.
Angeles said ROD’s refusal to register the CLOA was uncalled for because its function was ministerial and that it should defer to the authority of DAR as far as agrarian reform matters are concerned.
Meanwhile, Sen. Aquilino Pimentel said he had asked Sen. Gregorio Honasan to invite Atty. Romulo Gonzaga of the ROD-Bacolod City to the Senate hearing on Wednesday next week to shed light on why they refused to register the CLOA issued by the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) for the 60 farmer-beneficiaries of Hacienda Bacan.
The Senate committee on agrarian reform, chaired by Honasan, is currently investigating how DAR is using the fund for land acquisition and distribution (LAD) of CARP amid complaints that DAR had suspended the CARP process after the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Law (CARL) expired in June.
In a previous hearing held last Nov. 10, DAR Secretary Nasser Pangandaman had admitted that some P200 million of CARP fund had been transferred to the Autonomous Region for Muslim Mindanao (ARMM).
Pimentel urged the Senate to dig deeper into the said fund transfer, saying it was anomalous because ARMM is not covered by CARP and has its own general appropriations.
“We are surprised that DAR could issue P200 million of CARP Funds to the ARMM when it had only allocated some P1.6 million for support services alone for Negros Occidental. Paro Depenoso of DAR Negros Occidental told us this is not even distributed to farmer beneficiaries directly as these funds are used for training of local DAR officials, and supplies,” Angeles explained.
Angeles further stated that Negros Occidental has the biggest backlog in the Land Acquisition and Distribution (LAD) component of CARP.
Pimentel also said that among the issues to be investigated in Wednesday’s hearing is the problem of land distribution in Hacienda Bacan. (Lani Factor)
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