Agrarian Reform Secretary Virgilio “Gil” delos Reyes. PHOTO FROM GOV.PH
LUCENA CITY, Philippines–Aggrieved land reform beneficiaries in Quezon province demanded from President Aquino to replace Agrarian Secretary Virgilio de los Reyes for his failure to protect the gains of the government’s agrarian reform program.
Romeo Clavo, head of Ugnayan ng Magsasaka sa Gitnang Quezon (Ugnayan), in a phone interview on Monday, blamed De los Reyes for allegedly not doing anything to stop the displacement of Certificates of Land Ownership Awards holders in Sariaya.
“For him to remain as DAR secretary is revolting and unjustified,” said Clavo.
On May 28, Executive Secretary Paquito Ochoa Jr. rejected the appeal of six CLOA holders in Barangay (village) Sampaloc II in Sariaya to retain the agricultural classification of the 10 hectares of land that were awarded to them under the government’s agrarian reform program.
Ochoa concurred with the earlier ruling by the Department of Agrarian Reform to return the land to a private individual based on a municipal zoning ordinance in 1982, saying the land is an industrial site.
Clavo recalled that CLOA holders from Sariaya met with De los Reyes in September 2011 to prevent the revocation of land ownership awards based on an old ordinance that had already been repealed by the local government.
“But what followed was much worse. The DAR is now on a wholesale ‘bigay-bawi’ (‘give and retake’) of CLOAs,” said a visibly furious Clavo.
He branded Ochoa’s decision as a Damocles sword hanging over the head of 255 other CLOA holders in Sariaya who have similar pending cases in Malacañang.
Clavo said that when the farmers received their respective CLOAs, they all felt “a renewed hope for a better future for our children … But now that DAR and Malacañang are determined to get it back, it’s like they are killing us all.”
He vowed the affected peasants would not take the matter sitting down. “This is a matter of life and death for the farmers,” Clavo said.
Maribel Luzara, president of Kilusang Magbubukid sa Bondoc Peninsula, also demanded the firing of De los Reyes.
According to Luzara, the distribution of CLOA for 460 hectares of some 2,000-ha Hacienda Reyes in San Narciso, Buenavista and San Andres towns in the province’s third district last February was just a “deceptive show.”
“Bondoc Peninsula peasants had been used by DAR to serve as propaganda against the growing critics of Secretary De los Reyes. After the ceremonial charade, we were again left on our own,” Luzara said in a statement.
Early this year, 78 Catholic bishops, including Manila Archbishop Luis Antonio Cardinal Tagle, appealed in a letter to President Aquino for De los Reyes’ removal for his supposed mismanagement of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program.
Malacañang, however, chose to defend De los Reyes.
Luzara called on Aquino to immediately stop the harassment of agrarian reform beneficiaries in the Bondoc Peninsula by landlords.
She claimed hired workers of a hacienda in San Francisco town assaulted the agrarian reform beneficiaries on several occasions to prevent them from selling their copra.
Clavo and Luzara also appealed to Quezon Gov. David Suarez, Representatives Vicente Alcala (2nd district) and Aleta Suarez (3rd district) to help them in their struggle for justice.
The two said Suarez could make a personal appeal to the President on behalf of the Quezon farmers.
They said Quezon’s representatives in Congress could initiate a probe to stop the “bigay-bawi” scheme of the DAR in revoking CLOAS and its failure to implement the agrarian reform program in the Bondoc Peninsula.