Valuation issues will not derail Hacienda Luisita land distribution — DAR

Hacienda Luisita workers: INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines — Agrarian Reform Secretary Virgilio Delos Reyes assured on Monday that next year’s distribution of more than 4,000 hectares of Hacienda Luisita, the country’s biggest sugar plantation, to farm workers would not be stopped or delayed by appeals on land valuation by its owners.

Delos Reyes stressed that the land distribution process has remained on track and he was standing firm on Department of Agrarian Reform’s timetable for distributing the land by May 2013 to the farmer-beneficiaries.

In a statement, the agrarian reform secretary assured, “Determination of just compensation for landowners does not stop or delay land distribution.” He was addressing concerns by the farm workers’ organizations that the valuation process in Hacienda Luisita could hamper the distribution of land.

He cited the agrarian reform law in pointing out, “We can proceed with the land distribution even if the valuation is contested by the landowners or the farmer-beneficiaries.”

The law mandates the Land Bank of the Philippines to determine the value of agricultural land covered under the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program. The valuation may be contested, either by the landowners or the beneficiaries, through the DAR Adjudication Board (DARAB). The parties are then  allowed to elevate the issue to the courts in case of appeal.

According to Delos Reyes, “The farmer-beneficiaries will get the land regardless of the value pegged by the DARAB or the courts,” and stressed that a pending ruling on the valuation would not prevent the DAR from pushing through with the distribution in 2013.

The Department of Agrarian Reform, he said, has been finalizing a preliminary master list of farm workers entitled to portions of Hacienda Luisita. The list, Delos Reyes emphasized, would be made available to the public before the end of September.

“Even the preliminary master list will be made available to the public so that interested parties, particularly farmers’ groups and civil society groups, may scrutinize the list,” the DAR chief explained, adding that the list would still be subjected to further screening, where interested parties may appeal to be included or request the exclusion of certain individuals.

The DAR started on May 18 the process of beneficiary identification, screening and validation in the 10 Hacienda Luisita barangay (villages), where some 8,550 potential beneficiaries took part in a series of interviews conducted by DAR personnel at basketball courts and elementary schools. The process was initiated a week after DAR received a copy of the Supreme Court’s final and executory decision.

The high court had ordered the distribution of Hacienda Luisita to farmworkers who were tilling the land on November 21, 1989.

Delos Reyes pointed out that the screening of beneficiaries could prove to be the most contentious given the fact that a number of potential beneficiaries could be stricken off the list if proven that they were not working on the hacienda on November 21, 1989, the date prescribed by the Supreme Court.