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Thursday, October 30, 2008
Farmers storm agrarian reform office
By Cong B. Corrales
CAGAYAN DE ORO -- Rock-wielding farmers, desperate that the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (Carp) will end this year, stormed the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) regional office in Barangay Carmen, Cagayan de Oro Wednesday.
The farmers used rocks to pound on the green gates of the DAR regional office as soon as they arrived from Bukidnon Wednesday.
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The sudden action by the farmers caught DAR employees who were taking their lunch breaks by surprise. Some of the farmers even lay down on the driveway to prevent vehicles from entering or exiting.
When DAR security guards tried to close the gates, the farmers got angry and forcibly entered the DAR compound around 11:25 a.m.
The farmers padlocked the gates with a chain and steel lock, keeping the employees and their vehicles, including the Sun.Star Cagayan de Oro and ABS-CBN teams, from getting out of the compound.
A team of 25 policemen led by Inspector Dexter Paje of the Cagayan de Oro Police Station 4 arrived and negotiations followed.
It took four hours of negotiations by Senior Police Officer 2 Edwin Leyros and the leaders of Task Force Mapalad before the farmers relented and opened the gates.
Joseph Coles of the TFM Community Development Office said the farmers are fed up with the snail-paced implementation of Carp and the way DAR employees handled their claims in Bukidnon considering that the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Law (Carl) would end by December this year.
"We are calling for the extension of Carp. Taman na lang na sa Disyembre, pagkahuman ana matabla tanan mga (The program ends in December and, after that, there is nothing left for) agrarian reform beneficiaries nga nangabinbin pa sa (who is in the) land valuation phase with LandBank," Coles said.
Pepito Sales, chairman of Farm Landless Farmers Beneficiaries Association (FLFBA), decried the inaction of the DAR regional office that led to the cancellation of 331 sales patents of the land owned by Bukidnon former governor Carlitos Fortich.
Sales said they went to DAR regional office to dialogue with Regional Director John Maruhom but was told that he was in Bukidnon in another consultation meeting with another group of farmer-beneficiaries.
He said this angered the farmers who traveled all the way from Bukidnon.
"Walay pulos kini nga opisina. Ipabalik-balik pa mi diri sige para dialogue. Adtong October 1 nag dialogue mi diri uban si RD (Maruhom) naa pa gyud ang DENR. Maayo na to ang among panagsabot, apan pag adto namo sa Paro (Provincial Agrarian Reform Officer) gibalibaran kami (This office is useless. We were told to keep coming back for a dialogue. We had a dialogue last October 1 with the regional director and DENR was even represented. We had an agreement but when we went to Paro, they refused us)," Sales said.
Apolinar Banaag, of DAR-Northern Mindanao legal services division, denied their office is delaying the claims of the farmer beneficiaries.
"Wala man mi sukad gitagu-an sa mga beneficiaries. Ang proseso lang gyud atong gi-observe busa madelantar gyud (We have not hidden anything from the beneficiaries. We observe the process so they will have to expect delays)," Banaag told Sun.Star.
Banaag managed to reach Maruhom by phone and told him of the farmers' break-in. He said Maruhom was expected to arrive in Cagayan de Oro Wednesday night and dialogue with the farmers who have now camped inside the DAR regional office, vowing not to leave unless some official talk to them.
Church support
Church leaders headed by no other than Pope Benedict XVI have extended their support to the farmers.
The influential Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) noted that the agrarian reform law has failed to break centuries-old feudal relations in Philippine rural areas, particularly in the provinces of Negros Occidental and Bukidnon, where big sugar haciendas tilled by poor farmers largely remain in the hands of few landowners.
Cagayan de Oro Archbishop Antonio Ledesma said all they want is land for the tillers, and they will support any program that would push for the same cause.
Pope Benedict XVI also urged President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to implement genuine agrarian reform program and to resolve unemployment in the country.
The Pontiff, during his welcome speech to Philippine Ambassador to the Vatican Cristina Ponce-Enrile recently, said the President should continue strengthening her agricultural land reform program.
"Carefully planned agrarian reforms can benefit a society by instilling a sense of common responsibility and stimulating individual initiative, making it possible for a nation both to feed its own and expand its participation in international markets so as to enhance opportunities for growth in the process of globalization," the Pope said in an article posted on the CBCPNews website.
"I pray that by implementing measures that foster the just distribution of wealth and the sustainable development of natural resources, Filipino farmers will be granted greater opportunities for increasing production and earning what they need to support themselves and their families," the Pope said.
Carp expired last June 15, but DAR still continued its implementation, including the sending of notices to landowners, paying the landowners, and the installation of farmer beneficiaries. (With reports from FP/Sunnex)
For more Philippine news, visit Sun.Star Iloilo. (October 30, 2008 issue)
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