Quezon farmers support CARP extension

INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

LUCENA CITY—Even if it means more harassments against the farmers, a peasant organization in Quezon has expressed support to the proposed extension of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) for another five years.

“With the CARP extension, we expect the landlords to file more harassment cases to intimidate the farmers to give up their struggle to own the land they till,” Jansept Geronimo, campaign officer of the Quezon Association for Rural Development and Democratization Services, an alliance of farmer’s organization in the province, said in an interview Tuesday.

Citing report from their field officer in Bondoc Peninsula, Geronimo said late last month, a 75-year-old farmer Guillermo Lascoña from San Andres town was robbed of more than 500 coconuts which he intends to turn into copras.

Geronimo said the coconuts were forcibly taken from the old man by a group of paid guards by the landlord accompanied by barangay watchmen.

“The group claimed that the coconuts belong to the landlord and not to the old man. How can that be when it was the old man who planted the coconuts?” Geronimo said.

To add insult to the injury, Geronimo said the old man was arrested by policemen on trumped-up charges of grave threat.

“How can a sickly old man could make a serious threat against a group of able-bodied men? That was pure harassment,” Geronimo said.

He said Lascoña was still in San Andres jail due to lack of bail money for his temporary freedom.

Maribel Luzara, president of Kilusang Magbubukid sa Bondoc Peninsula, called on President Aquino not only to support the extension of CARP but also to help the more than 50 Bondoc Peninsula farmers who are facing court cases filed by their landlords.

“If the Aquino administration is really sincere in its avowed social justice program, President Aquino should extend full support to Bondoc Peninsula farmers,” she said in a phone interview.

Luzara said most of the farmers are hiding in fear because once they are caught, each one of them will need at least P60,000 as bail for each count of the unfair charges of qualified theft.

According to KMBP record, a total of 303 criminal cases, mostly qualified theft of coconuts have been filed against 223 tenants by several landlords in the Bondoc Peninsula.

Geronimo said the proposed extension of CARP could be the “saving grace” of the government agrarian reform program to fulfill the social justice spirit of the constitution.

However, the farmer organization called for the revamp of the Department of Agrarian Reform and its mechanism for land distribution to meet the demands of the long suffering peasants.

“The proposed extension of CARP for another five years is a testament to the lackadaisical performance of DAR under Secretary Virgilio de los Reyes. This is contrary to the repeated claims of the Secretary himself that the agency is on track in completing its land distribution task,” Geronimo said.

Geronimo said DAR leadership should be decisive in its task to hasten the distribution of lands to landless peasants. If the extended period will also be managed with the same slow pace of land distribution and injustice, the farmers will continue to suffer, he added.

The Quezon farmers have long been fighting to have big tracts of lands in the Bondoc Peninsula area particularly in San Francisco, Buenavista and San Andres towns to be included in the government’s agrarian reform program.

The farmers often ended up in court facing charges for qualified theft of coconuts and trespassing cases filed by landowners, which the farmers alleged were harassment and intimidation to give up their struggle for agrarian reform.