[ Manila Bulletin Online ] November 2, 2008
By MARVYN N. BENANING
DAVAO CITY – Several offices of the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) are under siege, including its central office in Quezon City, after farmers protested against the alleged non-action of the agency regarding land cases under the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP).
At least 40 farmers from Hacienda Bitoon who are members of Task Force Mapalad (TFM) entered the compound of the DAR Region 11 office here recently to demand that DAR place the property under CARP coverage and junk the alleged landowner’s petition for CARP exemption.
The farmers said they had petitioned, in 2003, for CARP coverage of the 245-hectare hacienda, located in Barangay Don Enrique Lopez, Mati, Davao Oriental but were told the landowner had a petition for exemption filed in 1996.
DAR, however, said the original copy of the petition had been lost and there was no duplicate or file copy of the petition.
The farmers said that when they filed the petition for CARP coverage in 2003, DAR started to reconstitute the landowner’s petition for exemption.
"In the absence of the document, the petition for exemption should be moot and academic. For all we know, DAR was only fooling the farmers," said Abel Nayal, TFM spokesman here.
Nayal said the DAR Region 11 officials led by Regional Director Yusoph Mama initially refused to talk with the farmers and instead sent in a 60-man civil disturbance unit from the Philippine National Police (PNP).
Mama was the former regional director of DAR Region 7 who skirted a 2004 Supreme Court decision and stopped the installation of farmer-beneficiaries in the former Teves property in Negros Oriental using as excuse the inclusion-exclusion petition filed on the last minute by former Rep. Herminio Teves.
Nayal said Mama threatened that the farmers would be bodily removed from the DAR premises if they did not leave voluntarily, but the farmers stood their ground, forcing Mama to hold a dialogue.
He said dialogues with DAR concerned officials are continuing and the farmers will remain inside the DAR compound until the issue is resolved.
In Cagayan de Oro City, farmers from Bukidnon also barricaded the gates of the DAR Region 10 office to demand that DAR fulfill its commitments in seven landholdings, which include Fortich, Valero and Lavi farms in Valencia City; Tan Nerry, Sebastian and Guingona farms in Malaybalay City, and Ocaya farm in Maramag.
Pastor Emmanuel Alano, convener and spokesman of the Negros CARP Reform Movement (NCRM) said DAR Secretary Nasser Pangandaman should be held responsible for the growing unrest of the farmers because he had not been doing his job as agrarian reform implementer.
"Instead of taking advantage of the remaining months of 2008 to hasten the resolution of pending land cases, Pangandaman sat relaxing on his seat and allowed a paralysis of the CARP process," said Alano.
TFM board member Jose Noel Olano said the widespread protests indicate that the administration has failed to address the issue of CARP extension.
"Right now, nothing is moving in Congress as far as CARP extension is concerned. It looks like the landlord-dominated Congress and the pro-landlord legislators are just waiting for this year to end so that CARP will finally be laid to rest," he said.
_________________________________________________________________
