Farmers hit DENR for ‘bias’

LUCENA CITY—Farmers from the Bondoc Peninsula in Quezon province assailed the “pro-landlord bias” of the provincial office of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR).

The farmers, in a rally held here recently, said the Provincial Environment and Natural Resources Office (Penro) has not been able to process a single application of the more than 4,000 hectares of public land under the Community-Based Forest Management Program.

The protesters belonging to the Kilusang Magbubukid ng Bondoc Peninsula (KMBP), said public lands were being given to big landlords, despite more than a decade of sustained dialogue with concerned government agencies.

The KMBP said the granting of more than a thousand hectares of public land to a big landlord through the Sustainable Integrated Forest Management Agreement (SIFMA), in an area with actual landless occupants, showed the DENR’s “anti-poor bias by ignoring the demands of affected tenants and occupants for security of land tenure in public lands.”

Landlord

The farmers were apparently referring to incumbent provincial Board Member Victor Reyes, scion of the biggest landlord in Quezon, the late Don Domingo Reyes.

Reyes defended his ownership of the land and explained that it was awarded to him by the government in the late 1990’s through the state reforestation program.

“The land is now planted with mahogany, gemelina and other soft woods. It was all legally acquired with my partnership with the government tree planting program,” Reyes said.

Last month, Reyes donated 10 hectares of his land in San Narciso to be used by the Philippine National Police (PNP) housing project and training purposes.

Legal process

The farmers claimed that Penro official, Emrich Borja, who they noted had been assigned in Bondoc Peninsula since 1996, has been unable to settle a single land conflict.

Borja refuted the farmers’ allegations, stressing the DENR has been attending to the issues raised by the farmers.

“I sympathize with their struggles to own the land they till, but we have to observe all the legal processes,” Borja explained over the phone.

Borja explained that the DENR regional office has created a technical working group to look into the plight of farmers in Bondoc Peninsula in the province’s third district.

He said the farmers should ask the Cenro (Community Environment and Natural Resources Officer) based in Catanauan town in the Bondoc Peninsula for updates.