More farmers are losing Carp lands

INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

LUCENA CITY—Agrarian reform beneficiaries in Sariaya continue to be dispossessed of land already granted to them by the government as seven holders of certificates of land ownership award (Cloas) covering 60 hectares of vegetable farms received eviction orders.

The seven Cloa holders—Donato Magsino, Eufrocino Abrenica, Crisanto Rosales, Marcelito Magsino, Crispina Morales, Apolonio Magsino and the heirs of the late Numeriano Rosales, all farmers from Sampaloc II and Tumbaga II villages—were given notices by Department of Agrarian Reform Adjudication Board (Darab) Quezon I to vacate their land on Jan. 15.

Sheriff Luz Durante handed out the notices asking the farmers to surrender their titles or Cloas, vacate the land and remove their houses and other structures.

The notice, a copy of which was obtained by the Inquirer, also sought the “peaceful surrender of possession” of the land.

Last Dec. 19, a Darab ruling, favoring the heirs of couple Ernesto and Carmencita Gala who own vast tracts of land in Sariaya, provided the basis for a writ of possession on the 60 ha of farmland.

The eviction order gave the seven Cloa holders 30 days to leave the property.

Romeo Clavo, head of the group Ugnayan ng Magsasaka sa Gitnang Quezon (Ugnayan), vowed to fight the eviction order, which he said was an injustice to the Cloa holders.

“If the DAR (Department of Agrarian Reform) will continue revoking our rights to the lands that they had already given to us, time will come that there will be no more farmlands in Sariaya,” Clavo said. The Cloa of Clavo’s late father was also revoked by the DAR in another controversial case.

Vegetable farms

Marcelito Magsino, one of the seven Cloa holders, vowed to stay on the land.

“When the DAR gave us the land, they told us to make it productive, which we did because it was already ours,” said Marcelito, a village councilor.

He said he saw no reason for the land to be taken back from them. “Where is justice here? This is unfair,” he said.

Marcelito said his land, like most farms in Sariaya at the foot of Mount Banahaw, had been planted with all kinds of vegetables.

To add further insult, Marcelito said the caretaker of the land had offered to sell the land to the farmers for P3,000 per square meter.

Based on the Darab ruling, the seven Cloa holders would receive disturbance compensation ranging from P24,000 to P66,000 after they vacate the land.

Clavo said the farmers had nowhere to go for justice as the case had already reached the Court of Appeals and Malacañang, which both ruled against them.

He said even if the farmers wanted to bring the case to the Supreme Court, they could not pay for legal services.

Clavo said the seven and other Cloa holders in Sariaya, who have pending cases of dispossession, would hold a general meeting next week to prepare their next course of action.

“We will continue the fight. Justice is on our side,” he said.