Negros farmers hold protest outside Agri office

Photos released by the Task Force Mapalad to the Mindanao Examiner show poor Filipino farmers from the Arroyo-owned Hacienda Bacan in Negros Occidental province gather in front of the Department of Agrarian Reform central office in Quezon City on Monday, June 28, 2010 and urge on the agency to dismiss the application for the conversion of the hacienda from agricultural to industrial use. The farmers say the move is aimed at preventing the distribution to peasants through the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program the 157-hectare hacienda.

MANILA, Philippines – Farmers from Hacienda Bacan in Negros Occidental’s Isabela town and their supporters gathered in front of the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) central office in Quezon City to ask for the dismissal of the application for conversion of the hacienda from agricultural to industrial use.

Jose Rodito Angeles, president of the peasant federation Task Force Mapalad (TFM), said the application for conversion, filed two weeks ago at DAR by the family of First Gentleman Jose Miguel Arroyo, is an 11th-hour attempt to evade the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) and prevent the distribution of the 157-hectare hacienda to 67 farmer-beneficiaries.

“We want DAR Secretary Nasser Pangandaman to immediately dismiss the petition because there is no legal basis for conversion of Hacienda Bacan. It is already a government property, having been acquired under CARP through compulsory acquisition and already paid for by the government in the amount of P42.3 million,” Angeles said in a statement sent to the Mindanao Examiner.

Angeles said the farmers will hold camp outside DAR until after the application for conversion is dismissed and the property is formally awarded to the farmer-beneficiaries.

“Secretary Pangandaman has until tomorrow - June 30 - to decide on the petition, but if he defers any decision, we will bring our case to the next administration,” he said.

The farmers said the application for conversion was filed by Ruy Rondain, lawyer of Mr. Arroyo, on behalf of Rivulet Agro-Industrial Corporation, the registered corporate owner of Hacienda Bacan.

“We decided to stakeout at DAR because anything can happen between now and until President Arroyo steps down at noon of June 30. We have information that DAR is under pressure from the family of Mr. Arroyo to approve the application,” said Angeles.

He said the farmer-beneficiaries, led by Rogelio Salva, have filed before DAR a motion opposing the application for conversion.

In the opposition motion, Salva said that Rivulet Corporation had no more juridical personality to apply for conversion since Bacan had been acquired and paid for by the government, that the application for conversion was meant to evade CARP, and that it violated DAR rules on conversion under Administrative Order No. 1, Series of 2002.

Under AO No. 1 Series of 2002, irrigated agricultural lands such as Hacienda Bacan is non-negotiable for conversion (Section 4), and lands already under land valuation and acquisition are highly restricted from conversion (Section 5).

Angeles said Hacienda Bacan was placed under CARP coverage in 2001 through voluntary offer to sell, but was later acquired through compulsory acquisition after the Arroyos sought to convert the property for ethanol production following the passage of the Biofuels Act in 2006.

He said that in July 2008, the property was valued for P42.3 million and the Land Bank had issued the corresponding payment to Rivulet.

The payment covered 148 hectares of the hacienda’s total area of 157 hectares.

Consequently, DAR twice ordered the Register of Deeds of Negros Occidental to issue a new title for the hacienda in the name of the Republic of the Philippines, but so far nothing has been done.

Angeles said President Arroyo had promised to distribute the hacienda to the 67 farmer-beneficiaries, but she had not kept the promise.

Peasant group slams Arroyo on land conversion

NEGROS OCCIDENTAL, Philippines - The peasant federation Task Force Mapalad has slammed the family of President Gloria Arroyo for its last-minute move to convert the family-owned Hacienda Bacan from agricultural to industrial use in Negros Occidental province.

It said the 157-hectare sugarcane haciendaB in the village of Guintubhan in Isabela topwn, placed under coverage of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program in 2001, was previously promised by Arroyo for distribution to 67 farmer-beneficiaries.

TFM president Jose Rodito Angeles said a report Wednesday by Vera Files that Ruy Rondain, lawyer of First Gentleman Jose Miguel Arroyo, filed an application for conversion of Hacienda Bacan last June 15 before the Department of Agrarian Reform.

The application for conversion was filed on behalf of Rivulet Agro-Industrial Corporation, the registered corporate owner of the hacienda.

“The filing of the application is dubious and devious. Hacienda Bacan is already government property since the Land Bank had already issued payment for it two years ago in the amount of P42.3 million,” Angeles said in a statement sent to the Mindanao Examiner.

Angeles said that under the agrarian law, lands under CARP coverage cannot be subject to conversion.

He said DAR had twice ordered the register of deeds of Negros Occidental to issue a new title for the hacienda in favor of the government but the ROD had not done so up to now, reportedly due to pressure from Arroyo.

“We have also conducted protest actions to compel the ROD and even the Land Registration Authority in Quezon City to register a new title for Bacan so that DAR could already issue the CLOA (certificate of landownership award) of the farmer-beneficiaries, but we have been ignored,” Angeles said.

Rogelio Salva, leader of the farmer-beneficiaries in Bacan, said they have filed before DAR a motion opposing the application for conversion.

In the opposition motion, Salva said that Rivulet Corporation had no more juridical personality to apply for conversion since Badan had been acquired and paid for by the government, that the application for conversion was meant to evade CARP, and that it violated DAR rules on conversion under Administrative Order No. 1, Series of 2002.

Under AO No. 1 Series of 2002, irrigated agricultural lands such as Hacienda Bacan is non-negotiable for conversion (Section 4), and lands already under land valuation and acquisition are highly restricted from conversion (Section 5).

Salva said they are going to undertake active forms of protests to press for the dismissal or denial of the application for conversion of Hacienda Bacan.

Photo: Filipino Farmers March In Negros Province, Demand Genuine Land Reform

Some 150 Filipino farmers from the Task Force Mapalad march in Negros province in central Philippines to dramatize their plight and to call for the Arroyo government to implement genuine land reform in the country. They urged Arroyo to take a firm stand in asking Congress to extend the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program.

There are still 1.2 million hectares of land to be distributed which would benefit some 800,000 farmer beneficiaries most of whom are in the Negros province. The farmers are expected to join others from other haciendas from North Negros who are also marching, in Bacolod City on late Sunday, February 8, 2009. From there, the farmers will all take a boat to Manila the next day after a concelebrated mass by Catholic Bishop Vicente Navarra. (Photos by Task Force Mapalad)

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.

Call For Special Session On CARP Extension, Peasants Ask GMA

President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo gestures as she delivers her speech during the Luzon North Regional Rural Congress Wednesday, June 4, 2008 at the Baguio Cathedral in Baguio City in northern Philippines as members of the peasant federation Task Force Mapalad (TFM) march to ask the Filipino leader to call for a special session of Congress to pass the bill extending the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program before it expires on June 10 this year. (Presidential photo by Rey Baniquet and AKP-Images for TFM)

BAGUIO CITY, Philippines - Farmers belonging to the peasant federation Task Force Mapalad had asked President Gloria Arroyo to call for a special session of Congress to pass the bill extending the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program.

TFM president Jose Rodito Angeles said certification of the bill as urgent would mean nothing if the President did not call for a special session.

President Arroyo on Tuesday certified the bill as urgent, even as some lawmakers said the move was too late to pass the bill before Congress adjourned on June 13.

“The House has not finished deliberations on the bill because some anti-CARP lawmakers were deliberately trying to delay. In the Senate, Senator Gregorio Honasan has promised to submit the committee report on the bill as soon as he gets the data he needed from the Department of Agrarian Reform, so that he can defend the bill in the plenary. But DAR is taking its good time to do submit the data. All things said, there is no time for Congress to pass the bill, unless the President calls for a special session,” Angeles said.

He said failure to pass the bill before Congress adjourns will greatly benefit big landowners who are poised to convert their agricultural lands into agro-industrial uses.

“The landowners are waiting in the wings. Once CARP expires on June 10 and Congress adjourns on June 13, they can proceed with their pending applications for conversion, and technically there is nothing to stop them because the law against conversion of agricultural lands does not exist anymore,” Angeles said.

He said he was worried about the recent development in the 157-hectare Hacienda Bacan, owned by Rivulet Agro-Industrial Corporation, which in turn is owned by the family of First Gentleman Mike Arroyo.

“President Arroyo had recently ordered the distribution of Hacienda Bacan. It was voluntarily offered for sale under CARP by Rep. Ignacio Arroyo. The Rivulet board of directors had approved Iggy’s voluntary sale of the property. The First Gentleman had issued a declaration saying he was not the true owner of Hacienda Bacan and that he was allowing Rivulet to sell the property under CARP,” he said.

“The Land Bank of the Philippines was supposed to issue a valuation of the property weeks ago. But here comes the lawyer of Rivulet, Mr. Ruy Alberto Rondain. Last June 2, he wrote the Land Bank asking it to suspend the valuation process in view of their application for conversion pending before the DAR. Mr. Rondain had also written DAR Secretary Nasser Pangandaman asking him to order the provincial agrarian reform officer of Negros Occidental to cease and desist from making any statements or actions on Hacienda Bacan,” Angeles added.

He said the case of Hacienda Bacan show a clear pattern that the Arroyo’s continue to evade CARP and to pursue their plan to convert the property for ethanol production.

This development came after Secretary Eduardo Ermita ruled in favor of the Hennessy Development Corporation’s appeal to be given more time to complete requirements on their own land use conversion application.

Hennessy Development Corporation, the owner of the contested 124- hectare property in San Juan , Batangas is a non-existent entity as the Securities and Exchange Commission had already revoked its registration.

“If President Arroyo is really sincere in her call for a moratorium on land conversion, and if she is sincere in certifying the CARP extension bill as urgent, then she should expressly order her family to let go of Hacienda Bacan and ask Congress to immediately pass the extension bill through a special session,” Angeles said.

Batangas Farmers To Rally In Manila

MANILA, Philippines (Mindanao Examiner / Jan. 22, 2008) – Dozens of farmers are threatening to stage a rally in front of the Philippine agrarian reform headquarters in Manila to demand that government place more than 100 hectares of lands under the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP).

Vic Ayap, president of Laiya Ibabaw Samahang Magsasaka (LISAMAG), asked Agrarian Reform chief Nasser Pangandaman to act on the plight of the farmers over the 123-hectae lands owned by Hennessy Development Corporation (HDC).

Pangandaman last year ordered the provincial agrarian reform office “to immediately proceed with the acquisition and distribution of subject property to qualified farmer-beneficiaries.” But until now the Department of Agrarian reform failed to act on the matter.

Ayap said the property owner allegedly failed to comply with the conversion order issued on June 17, 1998 by then DAR Secretary Ernesto Garilao. He said some 50 farmers from the village of Laiya-Ibabaw in San Juan town will set up a camp in front of the DAR headquarters in Quezon City.

He said HDC had five years from issuance of the order to undertake development in the property for eco-tourism, including the construction of a five-star hotel, but it was not able to construct a single road or structure.

“The conversion period had lapsed in 2003. Some former tenants and a number of new tillers had already planted crops to the property. We are asking DAR to immediately issue a notice of coverage for the property so that it can be distributed to the current tillers,” Ayap said in a statement sent to the Mindanao Examiner newspaper.

He said all petitions by HDC for extension of the conversion period had already been dismissed by DAR.

On September 5, 2005, HDC had filed a request for extension of time to develop the property, but DAR denied the request in an order issued on December 21, 2006.

In denying HDC’s request, DAR said that: “no substantial development was made on the property, thus violating the conversion order; the subject property remains agricultural; and iii) the request for extension was filed beyond the period allowed by law, or two years after the conversion period had lapsed.

HDC filed a motion for reconsideration in January 2007, but Pangandaman dismissed the motion on August 21, saying that aside from the lapsed period, HDC also failed to meet some requirements, including the posting of performance bond, submission of the joint venture agreement between landowner and developer, proofs of financial capability of the developer, profile of the developer, and financial statements, among others.

Ayap said that they are willing to “walk on our knees if necessary to compel DAR to issue the notice of coverage for the disputed property.” (Lani Factor)