Senator Miriam Defensor-Santiago. RYAN LEAGOGO/INQUIRER.net FILE PHOTO
MANILA, Philippines–Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago on Thursday asked the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) to investigate how businessman Antonio Tiu managed to acquire huge tracts of land that now form part of a 350-hectare property in Rosario town, Batangas province, allegedly owned by Vice President Jejomar Binay.
Santiago cited DAR records showing it had approved for conversion only 87 hectares in Rosario, where Tiu’s supposed 150-hectare property is located.
“How can a hacienda of 145 hectares or 350 hectares be consolidated in Rosario, when only 87 hectares have been approved for conversion? Originally, land in Rosario was agricultural. How could it have been converted for an alleged agri-tourism business? Under the agrarian reform program, this mess stinks,” Santiago said in a statement.
Santiago, a former agrarian reform secretary, noted that land ownership under the Agrarian Reform Law is limited to 5 hectares.
“The size of the hacienda alone indicates noncompliance with the intent of the agrarian reform law, which was to break up haciendas and sell them to the farmers,” she said.
“Normally, nobody in Rosario, Batangas, where the hacienda is located, should own more than 5 hectares of land.”
Santiago raised suspicions about the estate, saying it might have involved “falsification of public documents” and “illegal conversion of agricultural land.”
Tiu claimed he purchased a 150-hectare property from Laureano Gregorio.
But Santiago noted that the one-page agreement between Tiu and Gregorio was not notarized, and that Gregorio was not a landowner based on DAR records.
“If so, then he could only have been a farmer. But again, the DAR records show that it has never issued any document to Gregorio as a farmer,” she said.
“If Gregorio was not an owner or a farmer-beneficiary, presumably he is a poseur or a fraud. And Tiu is lying when he claims that he bought the land from this poseur. Thus, Tiu is liable for contempt for telling fairy tales.”
Santiago added: “When I was agrarian reform secretary, the most scandalous source of corruption in the DAR was the rampant illegal conversion of agricultural land to residential or commercial land. Hence, after reading about the humongous size of the land, my eyebrows rose up to my hairline.”
In a news conference in Quezon City on Thursday, Santiago said she would file a resolution urging the government to seize the Batangas property.
She said the Senate blue ribbon subcommittee looking into the charges against Binay could now close the inquiry and endorse the criminal aspect of the case to the Office of the Ombudsman.
By turning down the subcommittee’s and the blue ribbon committee’s invitations, the Vice President has, in effect, waived his right to due process, Santiago told reporters.
“A lot of negative evidence has been presented against him. Under the due process clause, he was entitled to have his side heard,” Santiago said.
She added that the Senate invitation was a hallmark of interdepartmental courtesy. “I hope the committee, of which I’m a member, will not go so far as to send a subpoena,” she said.
Ignoring a subpoena is tantamount to contempt and will entitle the Senate to detain the official being summoned, Santiago said.