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Thursday, January 30, 2003
MOA on land reform not yet final - Guv
By Avelyn Z. Agudon
GOVERNOR Joseph Marañon urged farmer beneficiaries who belong to Task Force Mapalad to submit their recommendation on the proposed Memorandum of Agreement for the creation of the Provincial Council that will address agrarian-related problems in Negros Occidental.
Marañon said any comment on the MOA is welcome because it is still subject for consideration by mayors of the different cities and municipalities, sugar leaders and officials of the Department of Agrarian Reform before its signing.
He reiterated the MOA aims to promote a “peaceful, fair and participative” implementation of agrarian reform in the province.
The TFM earlier denounced the proposed MOA which they described as “hook, line and sinker” of interests of former landowners resisting agrarian reform.
The group said Marañon is apparently “ill-advised” on the implications of the MOA on other existing laws of agrarian reform.
They also considered it as the latest among the landlords’ efforts to legitimize their resistance to the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program.
The MOA will be signed by the Confederation of Sugar Producers Association Inc., United Sugar Producers Federation of the Philippines, National Federation of Sugar Producers, Provincial Sugar Workers Council, Department of Agrarian Reform, Philippine Army, League of the Municipal Mayors, Philippine Army and Philippine National Police.
Based on the agreement, members of the provincial council agree that only regular farm workers directly tilling the land, as evidenced by a payroll submitted by the landowners, can qualify as beneficiaries of the landholdings subject to CARP.
Seasonal farm workers, on the other hand, cannot own land but shall be entitled to receive a just share of the fruits of the land.
The DAR should also recognize the right of qualified beneficiaries of the subject landholdings to opt for labor administration and respect the rights of qualified beneficiaries and farm workers to security of tenure and to waive their right to own lands they till under the Constitution and CARP.
The MOA also states that qualified beneficiaries shall not be allowed to physically take over possession of the land in question in the absence of an installation order signed by the DAR regional director and with approval of the provincial council.
No CLOA shall also be issued to the qualified beneficiaries nor can they be installed unless full payment of the just compensation of the landholding covered by CARP has been received by the landowner.
The CLOA should not likewise be issued pending determination of the petition for revaluation of the just compensation by the landowner./AZA
(January 30, 2003 issue)
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