Poor Filipino Farmers Knock On Palace Door

Cabinet Secretary Silvestre Bello assures farmers, who stage a hunger strike from President Gloria Arroyo’s husband Jose Mihuel Arroyo’s 157-hectare sugar land that the Palace will act on their issue. A meeting with Land Registration Authority administrator Benedicto Ulep, Department Agrarian Reform Secretary Nasser Pangandaman, Task Force Mapalad chairman Christian Monsod, and the group’s president Jose Rodito Angeles is set next Monday, December 8, 2008. Bello appealed to farmers to lift their 5-day hunger strike as they negotiate. Farmers are calling for the distribution to farmers-beneficiaries under the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program of Arroyo’s Hacienda Bacan in Negros province as promised by the President in 2001 when President Joseph Estrada was ousted.

MANILA, Philippines (Mindanao Examiner / Dec. 5, 2008) – Poor Philippine farmers who are now on their fifth day of hunger strike in front of the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) in Quezon City have gathered in front of Malacañang on Friday to seek audience with President Gloria Arroyo and ask her to keep her promise to distribute Hacienda Bacan and other landholdings owned by the family of her husband Jose Miguel Arroyo in Negros Occidental province.

Jose Rodito Angeles, president of the peasant federation Task Force Mapalad, said they have decided to go to Malacañang after the government agencies which are supposed to look into their plight ignored their pleas.

“We have been asking the Register of Deeds (ROD) in Bacolod City for over a month now to register the CLOA (Certificate of Landownership Award) of farmer-beneficiaries in Hacienda Bacan. We have gone to the Land Registration Authority, only to be arrested by police. We have urged Mike Arroyo to obey the law and stop resisting the distribution of his hacienda. Our pleas have fallen on deaf ears,” said Angeles, a former farm worker of the Arroyos in Hacienda Grande in the village of Robles in La Castellana town.

“Now we go to the President herself. She made a promise not just once, but several times in the past, to distribute the Arroyo landholdings. We want her to keep that promise. We want her to tell her husband to stop pressuring the ROD to delay the registration of the CLOA for Hacienda Bacan,” Angeles said.

TFM had earlier called for the relief of lawyer Romulo Gonzaga, chief of the ROD in Bacolod City, for allegedly obstructing the process of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform (CARP) in the 157-hectare Hacienda Bacan, located in the village of Guintubhan in the town of Isabela.

The farmers also called on LRA Administrator Benedicto Ulep to process the registration of their CLOA in the wake of Gonzaga’s adamant refusal to register it. Angeles said they will also ask President Arroyo to ensure the distribution of another Arroyo hacienda—the 10-hectare portion of the 197-hectare Hacienda Grande.

He said the 10 hectares were the only piece of land left for CARP coverage after the hacienda was subdivided into 42 titles to evade distribution. (With a report from Lani Factor)

After 10 years, 30 Negros Farmers Finally Get Justice

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)

Negros Farmers Get More Supports

Farmer-beneficiaries and their families of the disputed 61-hectare former property of the Teves family in the villages of Caranoche in Sta. Catalina and Villareal in Bayawan City in Negros Oriental province cultivate a vacant portion of the land on Friday, November 07, 2008.

Rolando Flores, President of the Villareal-Caranoche Farmers' Association (VillaCARFA), says the entry of the FBs is an act of self-installation in view of repeated failure by the Department of Agrarian Reform to install them in the property which they already owned since ten years ago by virtue of their Certificates of Landownership Award issued in 1997 and 1999. (AKP Images / Buck Pago)



Partnershipfor AgrarianReformandRuralDevelopment Services, Inc.
STATEMENT OF SUPPORT
A JUST CLAIM!

PARRDS upholds the human rights of thirty farmers who peacefully occupied 61-hectare of agricultural lands in Villareal and Caranoche, in Bayawan city, Negros Oriental awarded to them through the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP).

The 30 farmers belonging to Task Force Mapalad (TFM) are all holders of Certificate of Land Ownership Awards (CLOA) that have been granted to them in 1997 and 1999. Former House Representative Herminio Teves however, questioned the legitimacy of the farmers’ claim through assortment of legal tactics.

He went to the Supreme Court but was denied of his appeal. The Supreme Court instead affirmed the legality of the farmers’ claim. On September 21, 2004 the High Court decision became final and executory after it was registered in the Entry of Judgment.

The law has spoken in favor of the farmers. The government therefore has no basis to further delay their installation to the stipulated area. International human rights standards like the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICCPR) to which the government has ratified affirms the peoples’ right not to be deprived of its means subsistence, the right to a standard of living through adequate food and the reforming of agrarian systems to deter hunger.

The continued denial of their rights constitutes a violation through act of commission on the government’s obligations to respect and protect human rights under ICCPR.

On October 18, 2008, for the second time, after the June 13, 2008 scheduled installation was postponed, the Teves estate ARBs were set to be installed but again was postponed after the PNP refused to comply with DAR’s request for police assistance.

We therefore hold the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) under the leadership of Secretary Nasser Pangandaman accountable to such violations and derogation of the farmers’ rights, some of whom are on their 10th day of Hunger Strike in front of the DAR Central Office.

We call on former Congressman Teves to comply with the law and stop harassing the farmers. Initial report received around 11:00 this morning indicated that armed goons allegedly fired their guns at the poor farmers.

We disapprove of the indecisiveness of the PNP to provide police assistance to agrarian reform beneficiaries (ARBs) despite the appeal made by Lipa Archbishop Ramon C. Arguelles through a letter sent on October 17 and addressed to PNP Chief Jesus Versoza.

We demand that PNP Chief Versoza orders the disarming of the reported armed goons and to immediately ensure their safety and security of the ARBs.

Reports reaching our office bared that instead of going after the armed goons, the forty policemen who entered the former Teves estate instead harassed the ARBs and ordered them to leave the area that belongs to them. We challenge the Arroyo regime to make human rights a reality.

Farmers Hold Picket In Central Philippines

BACOLOD CITY, Philippines (Mindanao Examiner / Nov. 5, 2008) - Filipino Farmers demanding government action on several long-pending land cases have laid “siege” Tuesday on the provincial office here of the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) and painted its gates with the notice: “Closed until further reforms.”

“We are declaring the office of the DAR closed until further reforms,” said Jose Rodito Angeles, president of Task Force Mapalad, during a symbolic “shutdown” ceremony outside the gates, which gave way to the onrush of protesting farmers, prompting the security guards to fire warning shots.

Angeles said that DAR had stopped processing the pending land cases after the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Law (CARL) expired last June.

“DAR has become a warehouse of non-performing assets. No matter what we do, despite our repeated pleas and protests, and despite the fact that the CARP process can still continue until the end of this year, the DAR simply ignored our demand for installation of farmers who have been holders of Certificate of Land Ownership Award (CLOA) and for protection of farmer-beneficiaries (FB) who are being harassed, threatened and evicted by former hacienda owners,” Angeles said in a statement.

Among the pending land cases which the TFM farmers want DAR to immediately resolve are the generation and issuance of CLOA for FBs of Hacienda Bacan in the village of Guintubhan, Isabela; the installation and protection of FBs in Hacienda Canaan in the village of Mabini, Cadiz City; and protection of FBs in Hacienda Victoria in the village of Camangcang, Isabela, among others.

Angeles said that the 155-hectare Hacienda Bacan, owned by the family of First Gentleman Jose Miguel Arroyo, had long been valued by the Land Bank of the Philippines but the bank, for unexplained reasons, had refused to issue a certificate of cash deposit in favor of the landowner.

TFM had earlier demanded that DAR already proceed with the generation and issuance of CLOA for FBs of the Arroyo-owned hacienda in view of Land Bank’s non-compliance with DAR’s repeated order for issuance of certificate of deposit.

In the case of the 533-hectare Hacienda Canaan and the 133-hectare Hacienda Victoria, the farmers are waiting for installation and are being subjected to harassment and intimidation from armed men who are either alleged members of the Revolutionary Proletarian Army (in the case of Hacienda Victoria) or the Philippine Army soldiers and hacienda security guards (in the case of Hacienda Canaan).

Last week, the farmers padlocked the DAR office in a show of protest, but TFM-Negros spokesperson Edna Sobrecaray said: “We are now sending the message that we will go on protesting, we will not stop protesting, CARP or no CARP, until our just demands are met.”

Sobrecaray added: “We know that DAR cannot and will not anymore pursue its CARP mandate. We cannot hope from this agency now because it has become hostage to the power politics of influential people in government. Malacañang and its allies are stalling and waiting for 2008 to end to finally kill CARP, but we will go on with the struggle for land even beyond 2008.”

In Manila, peasants were also protesting the government's failure to grant them the lands they till. Six of the farmers are in hunger strike, but one of them collapsed recently and rushed to hospital. (With a report from Lani Factor)

Negros Farmers Stage Hunger Strike In Manila

Negros farmers stage hunger strike in Manila.

Manila, Philippines (Mindanao Examiner / Oct. 28, 2008) – Six farmers from the central Philippine province of Negros went on a hunger strike to protest the government’s failure to grant them control over the lands they till.

The farmers, Antonio Torres, Alexander Barroca, Rolando Flores, Wilfredo Beljot, Ronilo Flores and Victoriano Cordero, have been camping out the past seven weeks in front of the Department of Agrarian Reform headquarters in Manila.

They had previously not touched food, but water for 12 days and decided to go on hunger strike after DAR officials failed to heed their appeal to grant them their lands, about 61-hectares, which was formerly owned by Negros Oriental Rep. Herminio Teves.

All farmers were granted their land certificates in 1997, but DAR failed to install them as landowners since then.

“We have waited since our Certificates of Land Ownership Awards (CLOAs) were awarded to us in 1997 and 1999 respectively for DAR to install us and yet, we are unable to enter our properties and cultivate our land.”

“We have been deprived of our very means of survival by DAR and the Teves family for ten years, if that is not patience, then what do you call that?” Rolando Flores, 54, leader of the Caranoche-Villareal Farmers Association, said.

The farmers said their lands are located in the villages of Caranoche, Sta. Catalina and Villareal in Bayawan City, all in Negros Oriental. The properties covered by two collective CLOAs were awarded to 30 farmers, who are members of the peasant group called Task Force Mapalad (TFM), under the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP).

The property, which is currently being controlled and managed by the politician’s family, is planted with sugarcane and rice for the past ten years.

“DAR is a big disappointment, it could not truly protect farmers’ rights to own land under CARP.

On the other hand, it had repeatedly shown us that landed families with big political names and positions could easily frighten them and prevent them from implementing CARP,” Antonio Torres, 64, the oldest farmer among the six, said.

The farmers said there are no more legal impediments to their installation after all cases filed by Teves to prevent them from owning the land had been dismissed by the courts and the DAR.

They said the DAR Adjudication Board (DARAB) upheld that CARP acquisition proceedings covering the property and awarded the CLOA to them.

Photo: Agrarian Office Wraps Up Annual Review Workshop

Institutional Development Expert Evelyn Buenaventura and co-team Leader Engineer Frank Ramones, of the Mindanao Settlement Sustainable Area Development Project Consultant Office, listen to a resource speaker during the recent annual project review and planning workshop conducted by the Department of Agrarian Reform MinSSAD Project Management Officers at the Marco Polo hotel in Davao City in southern Philippines. With the implementers from eight settlement areas in Mindanao (Agusan del Sur 1 and 2, Bukidnon, Davao del Norte, Davao Oriental, Compostela Valley, Surigao del Norte 1 and 2), the DAR-MinSSAD Project is wrapping up its implementation highlights for all each subprojects in the target areas. (Candido Aparece Jr.)

Agrarian Headquarters Attacked In Central RP

CEBU, Philippines (Mindanao Examiner / Jan. 23, 2008) – Unidentified men exploded a grenade in an attack early Thursday at a provincial office of the Department of Agrarian Reform in Negros Occidental in central Philippines.

Police said the men tossed a grenade at the DAR compound in Bacolod City in Negros Occidental before dawn, but it reported no casualties in the attack that shattered glass windows and doors.

No individual or group claimed responsibility for the blast blamed by farmers to private gangs of landowners opposed to the extension of the government's Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program.

The peasant federation Task Force Mapalad (TFM) condemned the attack. "We condemn in the strongest possible terms the attack on the provincial office of the DAR. While the police are still investigating the incident, there is no doubt for us that this is the start of another round of harassment by landlords opposing the extension of the CARP," Edna Sobrecaray, TFM spokesperson, said.

Police is still investigating the motive of the attack.

"Those behind the blast may be the same landlords who were behind the series of killings of TFM farmers. Now, these landlords are out to threaten even government officials supporting the extension of the CARP," Sobregacay said without further elaborating.

The attack occurred ahead of a schedule meeting between farmers and agrarian officials over the implementation of the CARP in the province. Sobrecaray said farmers would not be cowed by unscrupulous landlords hindering the implementation of the agrarian reform in Negros.

"We are ready to defend our ranks. We will not be cowed by landlords who want to hinder justice. We had shed blood to ensure that justice would reign. We will do this again, if this is the only way to fight for our rights to the lands we till," she said.

The government's agrarian reform program may be extended after President Gloria Arroyo certified as urgent a bill seeking a 10-year extension of the CARP, which is set to end in June 2008, ten years after it was passed. CARP was the result of the passage of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Law (CARL) in 1988.

The passage of the CARL under Republic Act 6655 in 1988 was hailed as a historic occasion. CARL promised to redistribute agricultural lands -- in several phases -- to those who actually till them.

The CARP is primarily a social reform measure and addresses the need for a more equitable distribution of land ownership. Its end-goal is to improve the standards of living of beneficiaries and promote greater economic activity in the rural areas.

Most of the government funding for CARP came from the recovered P50-billion of the so-called Marcos' ill-gotten wealth; however, only P10 billion was allocated to the DAR, the rest of the money was distributed to other agencies, including P8-million for human rights victims under then President Ferdinand Marcos. Belgium, Spain and Japan among the countries that are supporting the CARP. (Mindanao Examiner)

Solar Energy To Power Homes In Zamboanga Province

ZAMBOANGA DEL SUR, Philippines (Mindanao Examiner / Dec. 12, 2007) – Hundreds of villagers in the southern Filipino province of Zamboanga del Sur are expected to benefit from solar energy that will be used to power their homes.

The installations of the solar home energy system will benefit at least 76 families, mostly farmer-beneficiaries of the Agrarian Reform Communities of the Department of Agrarian Reform in the town of Dumingag in San Miguel town, said lawyer Glenn Sabijon, provincial DAR chief.

“These solar home energy systems will provide lighting services to households through solar energy, particularly those in far flung villages, which has no electricity,” he said.

The Philippine Information Agency said the project is under the Solar Power Technology Support or SPOTS, which also provides income-generating activities for the farmers to be able to pay the operating and maintenance costs of each solar home energy system for only P220 a month. (Bong Lanipa)

ARCs Launch In Cotabato

Cotabato City Mayor Muslimin Sema. (Mindanao Examiner Photo/Dong Cusain)

COTABATO CITY (Mindanao Examiner / 09 Mar) – Muslim and Christian farmers hailed the implementation of the government agrarian reform programs in Cotabato City in southern Philippines.

Agrarian Undersecretary Kashmir Leyretana and Mayor Muslimin Sema, of Cotabato City, on Thursday led the opening of 5 Agrarian Reform Communities (ARC) here. More than 5,000 farmers are expected to benefit from the program, said Sema.

“We will continue to work real hard so our farmers would enjoy the fruits of their labor,” he told the Mindanao Examiner.

Some 5,000 hectares planted to rice and coconuts are covered by the ARC. Sema urged more farmers to put up cooperatives so the government can provide them aid and other assistance.

The DAR also has a program called “Support to Agrarian Reform Communities” of STARCM and previously distributed cultivation machineries to farmers’ multi-purpose cooperatives.

But cooperative members should undergo training they would be given assistance to ensure proper management of the projects.

STARCM is a seven year rural development program that assists in bridging the economic disparities of 50 agrarian reform communities (ARCs) in central Mindanao.

ARCs are groups of villages, where sustainable activities through convergence of development initiatives from various agencies, are introduced to improve the lives of poor farmers.

Over 51,000 farming households in Mindanao have benefited from the project. (Dong Cusain)