Farmers forced to give up land awards

SARIAYA, Quezon – THE BATTLE has come to an end for families of six land reform awardees hoping to keep 16 hectares of farmland in Sariaya in Quezon, despite a government order returning the property to one of the town’s richest clans.

But they may yet find comfort from the provincial government, which has vowed to form a team of lawyers to help them and other farmers trying to stop the revocation of their Certificate of Land Ownership Awards (Cloas) under the government’s agrarian reform program.

After a tension-filled negotiation with several officials of the Department of Agrarian Reform Adjudication Board (Darab) and the municipality, and lawyers of the Cabuñag family on July 11, the families signed a document agreeing to a settlement offer for them to keep only 15 percent of the land award.

They will also receive disturbance compensation ranging from P10,000 to P60,000.

In 1998, the DAR issued Cloas to the original farmers then staying in the 16-ha property in Barangays Tumbaga 1 and 2—Luningning Pesigan, Pedro/Romeo de Villa, Pastor de Villa, Elpidio Magtibay, Zenaida Javier and a certain Macalalad.

The land is part of the 44-ha Cabuñag estate that was distributed by the government under the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP).

The number of occupants has since grown to 29 households to include children of the Cloa holders.

Municipal zoning

The Cabuñags regained the 16-ha property after citing a 1982 municipal zoning plan that reclassified most of the estate as “non-agricultural” and, thus, not covered by the CARP. In December 2005, the Darab ruled in favor of the family.

In June 2008, the municipal and provincial DAR offices declared the 1982 land-use plan as void. The municipal government dismissed the document as legally defective because the properties in question had long been used for agricultural purposes.

The Darab, however, eventually upheld its decision.

Other Cloa holders

The Cloa holders accused the Cabuñags of using money and influence to secure a favorable ruling, but the charge was vehemently denied by Gladiola Cabuñag, one of the owners, in an interview with the Inquirer in 2009.

“We went through the normal process of presenting the merits of our case to various government agencies. Until after a long tedious scrutiny and careful deliberation by Darab, we were blessed with a favorable resolution, all based on the legitimacy of our claims,” she had said.

The family plans to build a subdivision in the site where coconut and fruit-bearing trees and several concrete houses now stand.

Romeo Clavo, president of an association of Cloa beneficiaries called the Ugnayan sa Sariaya, said “this government has forsaken us because we are poor. The justice system in this country is only for the rich and the powerful.”

More than 2,000 ha of land in 14 barangays and owned by the town’s rich clans are covered by Cloas, Clavo said. His late father, Marianito, was issued a Cloa by the DAR through the Land Registration Authority on June 17, 1998, covering 1.4 ha of land.

“Most of the Cloas would soon be revoked and the land returned to its former owners. We need all the help that we can get to stop this wholesale injustice. Land is a matter of life and death to every farmer,” Clavo said.

Landowners have petitioned the DAR to cancel the coverage of their erstwhile properties from land reform, also citing the 1982 municipal zoning plan.

“We support your struggle to stop the revocation of your Cloa. The land is already yours,” Provincial Board Member Donaldo Suarez, chair of the committee on agrarian reform, told representatives of Sariaya farmers in a meeting on Thursday.

The meeting was attended by other provincial officials and representatives from nongovernment organizations and the Darab.

The provincial government’s legal team “will seek an agreement that will be fair and just to the tenants and the landowners,” Suarez said.

Demolition plan

Before the Cabuñag compromise deal was signed on July 11, the families of the six Cloa holders and about 1,000 supporters from neighboring villages and NGO sympathizers set up a barricade along the barangay road to prevent a demolition crew from reaching their houses in Tumbaga 1.

Renato Bascoguin, the village chief, said most of his relatives would be affected by the planned demolition. “It is my duty to defend their right to the land. This is a life and death situation for them,” he said.

More than 20 barangay chiefs from other parts of Sariaya also came to show their solidarity.  “There are similar agrarian cases in other villages,” Councilor Alex Tolentino said.

Darab Sheriff Luz Durante was accompanied by the demolition crew, policemen with truncheons and shields, a fire truck, and representatives and lawyers of the Cabuñags.

Durante said she had no other option but to implement the writ of demolition which her office had been holding for over a year. “We withheld its implementation to give way to quite a number of appeals by the Cloa holders,” she said.

Compromise deal

During the negotiation held in a barangay hall, Alex Bernadet, the family representative, and subdivision developer Ernesto Medina said “we will not leave the area without your approval of our offer. The landowners have already spent big money and had waited for so long.”

Bernadet rejected the appeal of Cloa holders to study the proposal for a few more days, but assured them that their houses would not be demolished and their home lots would be titled to them should they agree to the settlement.

“We can’t do anything. We already lost our case. What I want is to avoid violence and even death,” Bascoguin said.

After a heated discussion, the agrarian beneficiaries finally yielded and signed the document of land transfer.

Some of them, however, told the provincial officials that they would not honor the contract because they signed it under duress.

Board Member Ferdinand Talabong said the farmers had a valid argument to question the Darab decision to return the land to its former owners.

“The lack of due process is glaring. The decision is arbitrary, a great injustice and a setback to the true intent of the agrarian reform program of the government,” Talabong, a lawyer, said during the meeting.