Farmers hope reform genuine this time

LUCENA CITY—A national farmers group said incoming Agrarian Reform Secretary Rafael Mariano’s determination to implement a genuine land reform program in the country would end the reign of “despotic landlords.”

“The entire Filipino peasantry, particularly the landless tillers, are behind Ka Paeng in his noble objective. With him as [agrarian reform secretary], the days of despotic landlords will soon be over,” Jansept Geronimo, spokesperson of Kilusan Para sa Tunay na Repormang Agraryo at Katarungang Panlipunan (Katarungan), said in a phone interview on Monday.

Geronimo, however, expressed concern Mariano’s plans could be scuttled by what he called “pro-landlord” laws and regulations.

“There are numerous legal loopholes that whenever landowners and farm workers collide in court, the dice is always loaded in favor of the landlord,” he said.

He urged Mariano to secure congressional cooperation in repealing measures that he said were pro-landlord. “But that is easier said than done as most of the honorable representatives have landlord bloodlines,” he noted.

Danny Carranza, Katarungan secretary general, said Mariano should speed up the issuance of certificates of land ownership award (CLOA) to qualified farmer beneficiaries.

“There are [huge tracts of] land [that can be covered by the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program, their Carp coverage is] already in the pipeline. The target beneficiaries have long been waiting,” Carranza said.

Geronimo also appealed to Mariano to help land reform beneficiaries whose CLOA had been revoked due to legal questions raised by landlords.

“When the farmers received their CLOA, it was the ultimate reward for their long years of struggle. So when these were revoked, their world was shattered,” Geronimo said.

He said he hoped Mariano would put a stop to landlords exploiting tillers on their estates.

He cited the case of a more than 1,700-hectare hacienda in San Francisco, Quezon.

The land titles to the estate were no longer in the name of the landowners and had been registered to the government but the landowners and their overseers continued to exercise control over the property.