Farmers fear losing land given by gov’t

BARRICADE In this file photo, farmers in Sariaya, Quezon, barricade a road leading to their farms awarded by the government through its agrarian reform program. —PHOTO COURTESY OF UGNAYAN-KATARUNGAN

LUCENA CITY—A group of farmers in Sariaya town in Quezon province has raised fears of losing their land after 252 land reform beneficiaries were dispossessed when the Supreme Court ruled in a dispute case in favor of the property’s former owners.

“This development is more tragic than the combined COVID-19 pandemic and typhoons. Losing one’s land is like merciless killing,” Efrem Mendoza, vice president of Ugnayan-Katarungan, said in Filipino in a telephone interview on Monday.

Mendoza said more farmers holding certificates of land ownership awards (Cloas) could become the next batch of “landless land reform beneficiaries.”

Motion denied

The Supreme Court’s Special First Division, in a resolution dated Sept. 28, denied the motion filed by Bukluran ng Mamamayan ng Concepcion Sariaya, Quezon, at Pinagbakuran Inc. to reconsider a lower court resolution on June 20, 2018, favoring the “heirs of Emiliano Gala, namely Luismil de Villa Gala et al.”The division said the petition did not provide substantial argument to warrant a modification of the court resolution. “No further pleadings or motion shall be entertained herein,” it said.

Ugnayan-Katarungan furnished the Inquirer a copy of the Supreme Court decision. Mendoza said his group’s lawyer received the copy only last week. “Since our pending petition banks on the same argument, our lawyer told us that the ruling could serve as a precedent, that our petition will also suffer the same fate,” he said.

Pending cases

The latest case involved 461 hectares of land being tilled by 252 farmers, all Cloa holders, in the villages of Concepcion and Pinagbakuran.Hundreds of hectares of farmlands in Sariaya also have pending cases of revocation initiated by landowners, who argued that their properties could not be covered by land reform as these were classified as nonagricultural in the 1982 zoning ordinance of the municipality, or six years before the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program took effect.

According to Romeo Clavo, president of the Sariaya-based Ugnayan ng mga Magsasaka ng Gitnang Quezon, more than 600 ha of farmlands and close to 500 farmers also face dispossession of their lands once the court rejects their petition to stop the revocation of Cloas.

“The Cloa holders need the help of President Duterte very badly. The court decision is another slap in the face of the government land reform program,” Clavo said in a separate interview.“[Mr. Duterte] is the only one who can stop this wholesale ‘bigay-bawi’ (give and retake) of the Cloas,” he said.

Sariaya Vice Mayor Alex Tolentino promised to help the farmers, describing the land dispute as an issue that would affect the lives of his townmates.

Protest march

In 2016, Sariaya farmers staged a 122-kilometer protest march and hike to Metro Manila to appeal to the Department of Agrarian Reform for the return of their lands.

“The court decision is totally without regard to the human right to food and livelihood of farmers, and is devoid of consideration for the country’s growing food insecurity situation,” Ugnayan-Katarungan said in a statement.The group said the decision would also disrupt the supply of Sariaya’s vegetables to local markets.

Sariaya farmers are producing about 600,000 tons of assorted vegetables a year, according to the group. These are distributed to nearby provinces in Calabarzon (Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal and Quezon) region, Metro Manila and parts of Bicol region.Clavo said most farmlands that had been returned to landowners were left idle and had been offered for sale for commercial use.

He said some landowners had allowed the former Cloa holders to continue working on the farm but as tenants or hired farmworkers. Others have entered into an amicable settlement with landowners who allow the farmers to continue tilling the land. INQ