[ Manila Bulletin Online ] November 18, 2008
By MARVYN N. BENANING
Forty-five farmers belonging to the Banasi Agrarian Reform Farmer Beneficiary Association (BARFBA) started their 444-kilometer walked to Malacañang at 9 a.m. on November 17 from Sitio Banasi, Barangay Pawili in Bula, Camarines Sur.
They are marching to the Palace to demand that President Arroyo reverse the April 2008 decision signed by Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita that led to their losing 123-hectares of land formerly owned by the Fajardo-Imperial families.
Ermita’s directive mandated the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) to cancel the Certificate of Landownership Award (CLOA) given to 57 Banasi farmers 11 years ago and restore the ownership of land to the Fajardo-Imperial families.
Ermita found the land to be a pasture land and therefore not covered by the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) even as DAR and Land Bank of the Philippines (LBP) insisted the land was planted to sugarcane, rice and corn.
"I just want to leave my 1.7-hectare land as inheritance to my 100 grandchildren," said Poblen Clavero, 82, the oldest among the marchers.
Jason, Remar, and Aaron, 18, the youngest among the 45 marchers wish to finish their education. But this has been rendered almost impossible by Ermita’s sad news.
When they reach Manila, the marchers will join a bigger mobilization called National Land Pilgrimage for Equity and Social Justice to call for the immediate passage of the CARP Extension and Reforms (CARPER) Bill now pending in both Houses of Congress.
Among these reforms are the substantial increase in funding to ensure two milllion hectares of land get awarded to 1.4 million farmers and the assurance that land titles already given to farmers cannot anymore be cancelled after a oneyear time prescription, thus ensuring the Banasi case would not happen again
The Banasi farmers are backed by Pakisama, a national confederation of peasants backed by social democratic groups and religious congregations preaching active non-violence.
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