Lack of gov’t funds for land survey delays agrarian reform in Tarlac estate

DEMAND Members of Malayang Kilusang Samahang Magsasaka ng Tinang picket outside the Department of Agrarian Reform office in Quezon City on Thursday to demand the implementation of an April resolution to distribute 62.4 hectares at Hacienda Tinang in Concepcion, Tarlac. —CONTRIBUTED PHOTO

CITY OF SAN FERNANDO—The lack of budget to carry out land surveys has been delaying the installation of agrarian reform beneficiaries in the disputed Hacienda Tinang in Concepcion town, Tarlac province.

Leaders of the Malayang Kilusang Samahang Magsasaka ng Tinang (Makisama-Tinang) discovered the problem when they picketed the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) office in Quezon City on Thursday.

“The promise by Secretary [Conrado] Estrella [III] to install us in the land in a matter of two weeks cannot be immediately done because there is no budget yet to survey the property,” Abigael Bucad, secretary of Makisama-Tinang, said in a phone interview.

Picket

According to her, officials of the DAR’s Bureau of Land Tenure Improvement have “committed” to doing the survey once the budget has been worked out.

James Arsenio Ponce, DAR Central Luzon regional director, confirmed that his office had requested survey funds and survey teams from the central office.

Around 60 members of the group held the picket ahead of the State of the Nation Address of President Marcos to demand the implementation of a resolution in April to segregate and distribute 62.4 hectares out of 200 ha in the former Dominican estate.

The farmers have not settled into the lands, although the DAR issued in June a writ of execution and a certificate of finality of the resolution, according to Makisama-Tinang’s support group, Unyon ng mga Manggagawa sa Agrikultura (UMA).

“[A total of 236 farmers] received their [Certificate of Land Ownership Award] in 1995, and until now, they haven’t actually set foot on their land,” said UMA secretary general John Miton Lozande in a statement.

Several farmers and their supporters, called “Tinang 83,” were arrested by the police on June 9 last year when Makisama-Tinang led a ceremonial planting rite in the disputed property being claimed by a cooperative whose members include relatives of Mayor Noel Villanueva.

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