LUCENA CITY—Land reform beneficiaries in the controversial Hacienda Matias in San Francisco, Quezon province, asked authorities to help them demolish a steel gate that the farmers said prevents them from bringing their produce from lands awarded to them in the 1,715-hectare estate to markets.
“Now that the lands have been awarded to us by the government, that gate has to go to erase the remaining vestige of the long years of injustice inflicted on us,” said Maribel Luzara, president of Kilusang Magbubukid ng Bondoc Peninsula (KMBP), during a provincial interagency dialogue held in Gumaca town on Friday.
Luzara said hacienda workers guarding the gate are barring anyone from passing through, even children, forcing people to climb the fence or sneak between barbed wires just to get inside and outside.
She said farmers planned to destroy the gate themselves if the gate’s guards would prevent them from bringing out their farm produce before the end of the month.
“We hope that the police and the Army will be there once we demolish our version of the ‘Berlin Wall,’” she said.
The Gumaca meeting was initiated by the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) office in Quezon. It was attended by representatives from DAR, KMBP, police, military, Commission on Human Rights and Kilusan Para sa Tunay na Repormang Agraryo at Katarungang Panlipunan, a national people’s organization.
Cornelio Villapando, new head of the DAR office in Quezon, vowed to help farmers in their legal struggle.
A bamboo gate was put up in 2004 after the DAR sent a notice of coverage to the estate owners. It has since been replaced with a steel gate.
The land where the gate is located has been awarded to land reform beneficiary Lucrecio Loberas. His daughter, Rowena, who was present at the dialogue, said his father also wants to remove the gate.
Lawyer Jean Marte, chief legal officer of the DAR Quezon office, discouraged farmers from demolishing the gate themselves, saying they would be inviting lawsuits if they did so.
The seven land titles covering the entire hacienda have been placed under agrarian reform. The pieces of property were formerly registered under the names of Segundo Matias, Cenen Matias, Velia Matias and Ma. Magnifica Matias.
According to farmers, the original Matias landowners are all dead. The grandchildren, who are all based in Manila, took over the affairs of the estate.
Samuel Salomero, former head of DAR office in Quezon, said the Matias land titles had been revoked. Three of the titles had been distributed to farmers and the other four titles are now under the name of the government, he said.
Despite the change in the status of ownership, the Matias overseers continue collecting two-thirds of harvest from coconut farmers and had filed robbery charges against land reform beneficiaries who had harvested coconuts without permission from the overseers, according to Luzara.