MALAYBALAY CITY, Bukidnon – Hundreds of peasants belonging to the Fortich Farm Landless Farmers Beneficiaries Association stormed the local office of the Department of Agrarian Reform Monday, demanding the removal of Julio Celestiano as provincial agrarian reform officer for his alleged failure to implement an order from the DAR central office to survey more than 300 hectares of disputed land.
Benerando Meno, the association’s spokesman, said the protest was the farmers’ way of venting their frustration with Celestiano because he would not order the survey of the piece of land in Valencia City they had been claiming. The land is also being claimed by Carlos Ozamis Fortich and his daughters, Maria Teresa Fortich-Zarraga and Pilar Fortich-Morasa.
“While the DAR is among the top agencies tasked to fulfill the state’s constitutional mandate to pursue agrarian reform with the welfare of the landless farmers and farm workers receiving the highest consideration, the department ironically has a top CARP violator within its ranks in the person of PARO Celestiano,” said Rosendo Emat, chairman of the farmers’ association.
The protesters said Celestiano had apparently sided with the Fortich family, who had been blocking inclusion of the 331-hectare land under the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program.
Celestiano could not be reached for comment.
The 331-hectare land is part of a 1,178-hectare plantation planted with banana, pineapple and papaya. While it is being claimed by the Fortich family, there is no official record they actually owned it, according to the association.
In 2006, the DAR, through the issuance of a notice of coverage, placed the land in question under CARP.
However, the distribution of the land to the beneficiaries stalled in 2011 when the Land Bank found the property had not been titled to anybody, not even to the Fortich family.
To remedy the problem, DAR and the Department of Environment and Natural Resources issued Joint Administrative Order No. 3, which would have cleared the way for the government to acquire the land and redistribute it to the farmers.
The joint order called for DAR to survey the property so it could be divided and parcelled out to land reform beneficiaries.
“CARP can never be implemented and farmers will never have land and continue to suffer from poverty if DAR field offices are headed by people like PARO Celestiano,” Meno said.
The farmers said Agrarian Reform Secretary Virgilio delos Reyes should fire Celestiano as he was clearly favoring landlords.
The protesting farmers claimed that Celestiano even recommended that the land be subjected to DAR Administrative Order No. 9, which allowed landowners to contest CARP coverage of their properties.
“The DAR has more than enough grounds to terminate the services of Celestiano not only because he continues to defy the DAR-DENR administrative order and the directive of his superior to proceed with CARP through the survey but also by acting as defender and lawyer of the Fortich family, who are not even the registered owners of the landholding and thus have no right to protest or question the CARP coverage of the estate,” Emat said.