MANILA, Philippines -- Whatever happened to President Gloria Macagapal-Arroyo's repeated pronouncements that she wanted a moratorium on the conversion of farmlands to other uses in view of the tight food supply in the country?
Farmers from San Juan, Batangas, asked the question on Saturday as they denounced Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita for issuing an order allowing the conversion to ecotourism of a 124-hectare agricultural property in Barangay (village0 Laiya-Ibabao.
In a statement, farmers belonging to Laiya-Ibabao Samahang Magsasaka (Lisamag), who are petitioning for distribution of the property, said Ermita’s order “betrays Malacañang’s hypocrisy and lack of seriousness” about the land conversion moratorium.
“To call for a moratorium while approving land conversion is patently hypocritical,” said Lisamag president Vicente Ayap. He claimed a conversion order was granted to Hennessy Development Corp. even though the company's registration had been revoked by the Securities and Exchange Commission in 2003.
The militant farmers group Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas said Administrative Order No. 226, or the two-year land use conversion ban by President Arroyo, was useless if the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) was extended.
“It should be noted that it was under CARP that massive land use conversions and crop conversions occurred, with its extension, then more of the same can be expected,” KMP chair Rafael Mariano told the Inquirer.
The KMP supports a radical agrarian reform bill that would entail, among other things, the free and automatic distribution of big lands to farmers.
Mariano said the plan of Congress to extend CARP would result in more lands being converted to commercial use and biofuel plantations, adding: “If CARP is not junked, then definitely the rice crisis will continue to worsen.”
Lisamag members have been encamped in front of the Department of Agrarian Reform in Quezon City since late April to demand that the Hennessy property be placed under coverage of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program.
Two weeks ago, the provincial agrarian reform officer of DAR in Batangas, Cynthia Lapid, issued a notice of coverage (NOC) for the property after DAR legal officials decided that there was no more legal impediment to placing the property under CARP.
According to Lisamag, Ermita’s conversion order issued last May 20 effectively nullified the NOC by setting aside a DAR decision dated December 21, 2006 denying Hennessy's petition for extension of the conversion period and another DAR decision dated August 31, 2007 denying the firm's motion for reconsideration of the December decision.
The Hennessy property was covered by a land conversion order dated June 17, 1998, but during the five-year conversion period that ended in 2003 the corporation failed to develop the property, the protesting farmers claimed.
They said Hennessy’s two main reasons for failure to develop the property were the long time it took for the environmental compliance certificate to be issued, which took place only in February 2003, and threats of a coup in 2001-2002 that caused investors and partners to shy away from the project.
Ayap said Hennessy applied for extension of the conversion period in 2005 and DAR, despite the late filing, asked the firm to submit the necessary documents so that the application could be processed.
Hennessy failed to submit some requirements, which included, among others, a performance bond and certification showing that its contractor had the financial capability to develop the property, Ayap added.
He said DAR in 2006 dismissed Hennessy’s application for extension since it had gone beyond the allowable period, aside from its failure to submit requirements and findings by a DAR team that no substantial development had taken place on the property.
The corporation then appealed to the Office of the President.
In granting Hennessy’s appeal, Ermita found merit in the firm’s claim that its request for extension was not filled out of time because DAR allegedly told it to “wait until the expiration of the five-year conversion,” that the land was no longer agricultural since the surrounding areas had been converted for eco-tourism, and that distribution of the property to new farmer-beneficiaries was no longer feasible because previous tenants had been paid disturbance compensation.
Lawyer Jae dela Cruz, counsel for the Lisamag farmers, said Ermita committed some errors of fact and judgment in granting Hennessy’s appeal.
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