Gov’t urged to disclose how owners paid for land

CITY OF SAN FERNANDO—The party-list group Bayan Muna is demanding full disclosure of how landlords had been paid for land covered by the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP), saying it would be highly irregular if the funds had been from the now unconstitutional Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP).

In a statement, Bayan Muna Representatives Neri Colmenares and Carlos Zarate said the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) earmarked P5.4 billion as early as Oct. 12, 2011, for landowners’ compensation.

“Earmarking landowner compensation, [using funds] coming from the DAP, is anomalous considering that there is already an allotted budget for this item, so why get more from the DAP?” Colmenares said.

“Secondly, the DAP is supposedly an economic stimulus package for fast-disbursing projects that would jump start the economy, obviously this is not the case with landowner compensation,” he said.

Hacienda Luisita

Colmenares said the P5.4 billion facilitated through DAP was made ahead of the final ruling of the Supreme Court in April 2012, which ordered the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) to distribute more than 4,000 hectares in Hacienda Luisita. The family of President Aquino owns this vast sugar estate in Tarlac province.

“As it is, the family of [the President] is among the main beneficiaries of the … DAP even before their clan-owned Hacienda Luisita is yet to be distributed to farmer beneficiaries,” Colmenares said.

Anthony Parungao, agrarian reform undersecretary for legal affairs, said the DAP was a disbursement strategy.

“It is not a fund. Therefore, it is not correct, either factually or conceptually, that so-called DAP funds have been earmarked for landowners’ compensation,” Parungao told the Inquirer by e-mail on Thursday.

“The truth of the matter, as emphasized by the DAR twice two weeks ago in statements released to the media on July 18 and 22, and as admitted by the Bayan Muna press release, is that the P5.432 billion of the P7.932 billion released to the Land Bank [of the Philippines] in October 2011 under the DAP did not entail any additional funds whatsoever,” he said.

“The entire amount of P7.932 billion was in fact the sum of the appropriations by Congress for landowners’ compensation in the DAR budgets for 2010 and 2011,” he said.

Review list

Parungao urged the Bayan Muna representatives to review the “List of Identified DAP Projects” released by the DBM on July 14 through its website https://www.dbm.gov.ph/wp-content/uploads/DAP/DAP%20Projects.pdf.

This report stated in Item No. 24 for landowners’ compensation that “P5.46 billion … [is] only indicated as cash release that is not included in the P72.110 billion proposed funding.”

The same report said “it only required the release of the NCA (cash or Notice of Cash Allocation)” and that “it already has an appropriation in the FY (Fiscal Year) 2010 and FY 2011 GAA (General Appropriations Act) in the total amount of P7.932 billion.”

Parungao said: “It is therefore incorrect to say that the DBM claimed that this particular item amounted to an augmentation.”

He said compensation had to be made to more than 4,000 landowners, including Hacienda Luisita Inc. (HLI), because under agrarian reform laws, the distribution of agricultural lands cannot proceed without first paying their respective landowners.

Distribution

“The existing guidelines expressly require that distribution can only be undertaken after title over the acquired landholding is first transferred to the government. It is only then that distribution can be made based on the subdivision of the property in favor of farmer beneficiaries through the issuance of [Certificates of Land Ownership Awards],” Parungao said.

Hacienda Luisita lands were paid in September and October 2013 or 17 months after the high court’s final ruling, he said.

“To suggest or insinuate that the DAP was principally designed or established to pay HLI and/or that the latter is one of its major beneficiaries is so obviously factually incorrect and utterly misplaced,” Parungao said.

He said it should not be a problem with the Land Bank to release a list of landowners who were compensated and the amounts each received. Tonette Orejas, Inquirer Central Luzon