Saturday, May 10, 2008 [ manilatimes.net ]
By Angelo S. Samonte Reporter
Malacañang said the government is ready to distribute a sugar hacienda in Negros Occidental province allegedly owned by First Gentleman Jose Miguel Arroyo to sugarcane farmers claiming the land.
“The land distribution process is underway. We ask for understanding and patience on the part of the concerned farmers given the Arroyos have already placed their 157-hectare land under CARP [Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program],” Deputy Press Secretary Lorelei Fajardo said on Friday.
Fajardo said the Palace has directed the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) to address the plight of the farmers of the Arroyo estate in Negros province.
Besides distributing land to the farmers, Fajardo said Mrs. Arroyo also instructed the DAR to work for the extension of CARP by coordinating with lawmakers.
“President Arroyo favors the CARP extension. It was, in fact, one of the agenda during the last LEDAC [Legislative Executive Development Advisory Council] meeting,” she said.
Farm workers of Hacienda Bacan belonging to the militant peasant federation Task Force Mapalad (TFM) are pushing for the coverage of the farmland under the CARP. The group on Thursday asked leaders of the Catholic Church to help farmers get the land.
According to TFM president Jose Rodito Angeles, the President’s husband, Jose Miguel Arroyo is causing the delay of the farmland’s distribution to CARP beneficiaries. The Task Force claimed the hacienda was sold to Mr. Arroyo in April 1994 through an auction held in Isabela.
Angeles said the hacienda was among the landholdings that President Arroyo promised in 2001 to give to farmer-beneficiaries through the CARP.
But Ruy Alberto Rondain, the lawyer of the President’s husband, denied that Mr. Arroyo owns and controls the property.
He said that in a “declaration of trust” dated October 6, 2007, the First Gentleman stated that the hacienda is the “exclusive property” of Rivulet Agro-Industrial Corp. and that he only purchased the hacienda as a trustee of the corporation.
Rondain added that Rivulet might not even push through with the conversion of the 157-hectare hacienda on account of Mrs. Arroyo’s order to have a moratorium on land conversion due to the current rice shortage.
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