DAVAO CITY, Philippines—Reversing its own ruling in 2008, the regional office of the Department of Agrarian Reform in Southern Mindanao has now declared that a farm belonging to the influential Rabat political family of Davao Oriental is exempted from the government’s Comprehensive Land Reform Program.
DAR Regional Directo Yusoph Mama’s May 8 ruling angered would-be beneficiaries, who held a protest outside the agency’s office here Tuesday.
The farmers said they could not understand why DAR reversed its original ruling—also made by Mama—placing the 200-hectare Hacienda Bitoon under CARP.
“We want him to explain to us why he changed his decision,” said Salvina Siarot, who led the group of protesting farmers.
Siarot said she and the other farmer had hoped they would finally own the land they were tilling inside the Rabat estate but the new ruling disappointed them.
Romeo Carlos, 57, a farm worker for the past 26 years, said the reversal came as a total surprise to them.
“I don’t know why they changed their mind and now favor the landowners,” Carlos said.
Mama could not be reached for comment.
However, Juldastan Rasul, DAR assistant regional director, said the decision “was based on merits” and was arrived at after deliberations.
Rasul said the decision was based mainly on an administrative order which exempted land devoted to cattle farming from land reform coverage.
He said on October 28, 1991, then DAR director for operations Ronaldo Orig acknowledged that Hacienda Bitoon was devoted to livestock even before CARP came into effect.
Rasul said Orig’s recommendation became a factor in the May 8 reversal.
“DAR (had previously) failed to consider the very glaring and undeniable fact that Hacienda Bitoon is, of public knowledge, devoted to livestock and cattle raising long before June 15,1988,” Rasul said of the previous order.
But Carlos said there were only a few animals inside Hacienda Bitoon, and that the land was devoted to coconuts and other agricultural products.
Rasul said DAR ruled that the “presence of coconut trees is merely incidental to the industrial activity of raising livestock.”
“It would also be very unlikely for one to maintain a ranch in desert-like condition,” he said, quoting from the decision.
Lanie Factor, national deputy coordinator of Task Force Mapalad, said DAR officials—especially Mama—should resign because of incompetence.
Rasul maintained the decision was in order.
“Since it has been decided upon by the regional director, the farmers’ next remedy is to make a motion for reconsideration or appeal,” Rasul said.
Factor said they will file a complaint against the DAR officials at the Office of the Ombudsman.