MANILA, Philippines—While hailing the Supreme Court decision ordering the distribution of the sprawling Hacienda Luisita to its tenants, a number of prelates and the social action body of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines warned Friday that unless the government gave its full support, farmers will be compelled later to sell their land back to wealthy landowners.
The CBCP’s National Secretariat for Social Action (Nassa) said land distribution was just the first step toward genuine land reform.
Fr. Edu Gariguez, executive secretary of the Nassa, said farmers must be given the needed support and services to assist them in their production and social enterprises.
“Without this support, the farmers are always in danger of losing their lands… [all] these should be provided by the government as provided by the Carper law,” said Gariguez.
The Nassa has been helping farmer-beneficiaries of the 5,000-hectare sugar plantation straddling Tarlac City and the towns of Concepcion and La Paz in their struggle against a stock distribution arrangement that prevented them from owning the land.
Gariguez said the Nassa would closely monitor developments on the sugar plantation to oversee the actual distribution of the land.
Cubao Bishop Honesto Ongtioco said the government must provide farmer-beneficiaries proper guidance, advise and financial support to help them sustain their land.
“The farmers have to be guided and supported by the government otherwise the decision to help them will not thrive… they might just sell or pawn their land once in need,” warned Ongtioco over the Church-run Radio Veritas on Friday.
Jaro Archbishop Angel Lagdameo also echoed the same counsel, saying he hoped that farmers would be able to make good use of the land, which for years had been owned and controlled by the wealthy Conjuangco family, relatives of President Aquino.
“The SC decision is a good and happy news for the farmers,” said Lagdameo. “I hope the farmers will make appropriate use of the farmland and not sell them to new buyers who will become new hacienderos of large haciendas again.”
Tagbilaran Bishop Leonardo Medroso said that the high tribunal’s decision championed the rights of the farmers who had been fighting for land for decades.
Medroso was optimistic that the ruling would elp boost the credibility of the country’s justice system, which he said has been perceived to favor only the rich and the powerful.
The ruling, however, will be meaningful only if the farmers are provided with essential farming inputs such as fertilizers, tractors and trucks to make their farms productive, according to Archbishop Emeritus Oscar Cruz.
“Otherwise, these farmers will go hungry again,” said Cruz in a phone interview with reporters on Friday.
He said when this happens, farmers will be pushed to sell their land back to the Conjuangcos. “Then, everything will be back to normal again for them,” said Cruz.
He also anticipated an appeal from the Hacienda Luisita owners, saying that the management would do whatever it can to stop the distribution of the land.
“I believe that the owners will not easily agree to it… the farmers will still have to go through the eye of the needle before they get to claim their lands,” said Cruz, a former CBCP president.
Gariguez added, “the Conjuangcos will definitely oppose the land distribution as what they did in the long history of struggle…. President Aquino must show impartiality and political will in implementing social reform law.”