DAR starts transfer of Hacienda Luisita to farmers

The transfer of the Hacienda Luisita sugar plantation from the Cojuangco clan to the farming families that had tilled it for decades began on Friday.

Agrarian Reform Secretary Virgilio de los Reyes and about 120 employees of the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) traveled to Hacienda Luisita in Tarlac province to explain the land reform process to the farmers and notify them of the dates of their interviews with the DAR for the transfer of land to them.

The farmers lined up to receive stubs and flyers with the date of their interviews and the identification papers they would need to show to DAR.

The department will set up registration desks in the 10 barangays on the estate to gather information about the beneficiaries in the next three weeks.

The interview is the first step in the identification, screening, and validation of farmers who are qualified to own plots of land in the hacienda.

“This is step one,” De los Reyes said.

“Three major activities—social preparation and FB [farmer-beneficiary] identification and screening, segregation and subdivision survey, and preparation for post-distribution support services—will be conducted simultaneously to fast-track the distribution process,”  he said.

Felix Nacpil Sr., the president of Ambala, one of the unions on the estate said, “This is a victory for all the farm laborers.”

Nacpil said he would meet with DAR officials on May 23, the first day of the interviews. He said he wanted the land distribution to be finished in six months, but agreed that a process had to be followed.

Teresita Luna, a 63-year-old resident of Barangay Balete, clutched her appointment slip. Born and raised on the plantation, Luna said the distribution of the land couldn’t be faster for her. “But this is better. I can leave something for my children,” she said.

To manage the huge number of claimants, the DAR will interview potential beneficiaries in batches, using the appointment schedule being implemented by the Department of Foreign Affairs in the passport application process. De los Reyes said this system ensures an orderly process, shortens lines, and minimizes waiting time.

De los Reyes said the government had also started auditing Hacienda Luisita and surveying the land. The DAR has bid out the services for the auditing of the company’s finances, which will be used to determine how much the company will pay the farmers for the land sold to private buyers, valued at P1.3 billion.

The DAR asked for assistance from the Land Registration Authority and the Department of Agriculture to survey the land and provide support services to the farmers.

The DAR plans to complete the transfer of the estate to the farmers in six to 12 months.

Farm, home lots

A lawyer of a group of farmers in the hacienda said the government should study the right price of home lots on the estate. Lawyer Christian Monsod said there were different values for agricultural land and home lots on the estate in 1989, the year used by the Supreme Court as base for reckoning and setting land value in computing the just compensation for Hacienda Luisita Inc. (HLI).

Citing studies of a London School of Economics professor and financial documents from HLI, Monsod said the home lots  were valued at P500,000 a hectare in 1989 while farm lots went for P40,000 a hectare in that year.

Monsod said that when different rates exist on the same property, the government should determine if it is right to pay P500,000 a hectare for the home lots given by HLI to 6,296 farmworkers in 1989.

Strange valuation

The Supreme Court has ordered the DAR to pay HLI just compensation for the home lots using 1989 prices as bases of land value.

“It’s a strange valuation,” Monsod said. “I trust the [DAR] will not use that valuation.”

He said in 1988, a year before a stock option was implemented instead of actual land distribution under the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP), land on the estate, originally spanning 6,443 hectares, cost only P55,000 per hectare.

Monsod said if the DAR would use P500,000 as the value per hectare of  home lots in the hacienda, the agency would have to shell out P60.5 million in taxpayers’ money for the total 121 hectares as benefits of farmers being HLI shareholders. With a report from Tonette Orejas, Inquirer Central Luzon

First posted 12:25 am | Saturday, May 19th, 2012