NEGROS Occidental Vice Governor Bong Lacson is correct when he said that President Rodrigo Duterte should clarify his statement that Negros will be put under Land Reform Program, through Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program. We all know that Negros is already under land reform. How is the implementation? That is another story to be clarified by the Department of Agrarian Reform.
The vice governor (a sugarcane planter also) is pushing for the audit of the lands. There are fairy stories circulating in coffee shops that some of the beneficiaries cannot be good farmers in their land because they do not have mini tractors or carabaos to plow their fields. They do not have needed seeds and there is no fertilizer assistance from the government. If they have problems with their crops and animals, there are no technicians to help them.
With all these and more, the poor farmers are obliged to borrow money from friendly sharks or simply deal under the table for the survival of their families. It is also alleged that in some circumstances the original owners or their relatives buy back the land. There could be truth in these fairy stories that is why the request of Vice Governor Bong Lacson for the serious audit of the lands and the beneficiaries is valid.
We would like also to know what has been found out by the town and the city mayors. Most of our top public officials are also landowners. Each local government unit has a flagship program on agriculture, food production, food security, poverty reduction, and economic development. The provincial development of Negros and its highlight of accomplishment are recorded. I think the question of the vice governor could be easily answered.
If there will be extended land reform program for Negros just like what President Duterte did in Boracay, many workers will welcome this. If the President is serious and there is excellent planning this could be good for the landless farmers. If this happens to be one of the slipped of the tongue (or slip of the mind) of the President, this could fall under the joke category which one day will be elaborated in Pinoy Big Jokes, a comic book sold by National Book Store.
For some big landowners, the joke or reality is painful. Their grandparents as early as 1840 were already here in Negros to start the hacienda system and lived a semi-feudal life. They converted wilderness into a first-class sugar land. The children and the grandchildren benefited from this. The fourth generation hacienderos are now facing this joke or reality.
President Duterte is sending additional troops in Negros to run after the New People’s Army, drug personalities, common criminals, and possibly assist in the implementation of the extended land reform program. We can always expect reactions from the Negros buena familias, ilustrados-of-the-later-days, the old rich, the new rich, and the uprising rich.
All these happen after the Year of the Dog. What is your favorite Buddha animal?