Vol. XXI, No. 164 [ Business World Online ]
Monday, March 24, 2008 | MANILA, PHILIPPINES
NORALA, SOUTH COTABATO — Born from a not-so-well-off family, life did not come easy for Restia de la Cruz, a working student in her younger years.
To get out of the rut, she drove herself into what she described as a self-imposed slavery tilling more than a hundred hectares of arable. But losing a portion of the land to agrarian reform made it doubly difficult.
"I worked hard like a carabao [water buffalo] for those lands for my children, worked late at night, only for those lands to be confiscated by the government," the mother of six said in the vernacular Hiligaynon.
A native of Dumalag town in Capiz, she decided to settle down in Mindanao (the island was then called "Land of Promise") with her husband in 1959.
Ms. de la Cruz, the first notary public in Norala, South Cotabato, narrated how she had to make use of a small kerosene lamp to finish work until late nights.
With savings from notarial work, augmented by her husband’s income as captain of a local liner, she set up her own rice and corn retail business.
With a father constantly reminding her of the importance of making a living from land ownership, Ms. de la Cruz had accumulated more than 200 hectares when President Fedinand E. Marcos issued Presidential Decree (PD) 27.
Issued on Oct. 21, 1972, gave tenants ownership of the lands they till. Also known as "Tenants Emancipation Decree," the radical legislation laid down a system for the purchase by tenant-farmers of rice and corn lands they were tilling at liberal terms and subject to certain conditions.
PD 27 was later on institutionalized and expanded during the Aquino administration under Republic Act 6657, or the 1988 Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Law (CARL).
In 1972, Ms. de la Cruz recalled how South Cotabato Governor Sergio B. Morales, accompanied by an Army battalion commander, asked her to "cooperate" and give up 100 hectares of her land for PD 27. "It was martial law then, what else could I do," she told BusinessWorld. Martial law was declared on Sept. 21, 1972.
Ms. de la Cruz’s views on agrarian reform are, however, not shared by most of her neighbors.
Farmer-leader Victor Kapunan, who is a CARL beneficiary, said the government’s agrarian reform program has its merits. "It proved beneficial to qualified landless tenants," he said.
But Ms. de la Cruz called as unfair the land distribution process without her knowledge and signature on two separate occasions. Even her eight-hectare homestead was subjected to agrarian reform.
PD 27 subjected all tenanted landholding over seven hectares to land reform, without consideration of the previous homestead.
The court has favored Ms. de la Cruz in two cases, saying her 44- and eight-hectare lands were illegally distributed. For at least two decades, however, she had been deprived of its produce, she claimed.
At 15 sacks a hectare and for two planting seasons a year, Ms. de la Cruz computed her potential lost rental income for about two decades at millions of pesos.
While the court ordered the tenants to pay her back the rental for more than 20 years, she had lost hope of collection when the tenants found it difficult to pay even their present rent.
‘Fixers’ in VOS
Meanwhile, Mr. Kapunan criticized the prevalent culture of "fixers" in processing CARL’s voluntary offer to sell (VOS) scheme. A fixer, who processes VOS in behalf of a landowner as per the practice in the region, normally gets at least a 10% share of the total land valuation.
Percelito T. Escamilla, senior agrarian reform program officer of South Cotabato, said the prevailing rate in the region for a hectare of corn land ranges from P70,000 to P80,000, while a hectare of irrigated rice land ranges from P120,000 to P130,000 based on valuation by the Land Bank of the Philippines.
"South Cotabato is targeting 4,500 hectares of agricultural land for distribution this year. We do hope [CARL] will be extended," he said.
With CARP about to end in June, its possible extension has been receiving mixed views from different sectors.
But if Ms. de la Cruz will have her way, she is done with CARL. "I worked hard in my younger years for a relaxed and luxurious life in my older years, but here I am still battling [my land case] in court." — Helengrace C. Garcia
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