Camarines Sur farmers lose fight over land

PAMPLONA, Camarines Sur, Philippines—After almost three years of fighting off court orders to demolish the houses they built on a 60-hectare farm along a highway Barangay del Rosario, 23 farming families were finally evicted by the police on Friday.

Scuffles marred the demolition, which started early in the morning, after a group of women scratched the arms of deputy court sheriff Rommel Garcia and shoved him in the muddy ricefield.

Garcia said the presence of police headed by Chief Inspector Rizalde Recierdo, the police chief of Pamplona, located some 17 kilometers northwest of Naga City, however defused the tension.

He said the farmers organized as the Samahan ng Magsasaka ng Pamplona (SMP) eventually relented and gave in to the order of the court to dismantle their structures on the farm being claimed by 21st Century Resources and Development Corp.

Jerome Cruz, head of the Barangay Del Rosario, said the village council had been trying to facilitate a  peaceful enforcement of court orders through a series of dialogues between April and December of last year. But the settlers refused to budge.

In orders dated November 19, 2009 and June 8, 2010, the Naga City Regional Trial Court Branch 20  told the farmers to “immediately vacate the property and remove their improvements at their own expense.”

The farmers were also ordered to pay the corporation P20,000 for attorney’s fee and “reasonable compensation of P1,000 per month for the use and occupation of the premises,” which would be counted from June 23, 2009 until ownership of the land had been restored to the corporation.

Alfredo Villaraza, 54, SMP vice president, said the farmers were not shown any court order of ejection and demolition.

He said he started tilling the land more than 20 years ago, when it was an abandoned farm previously  owned by Sanyo Corp.

Roque Borigas, the SMP president, said however that they had no option but to follow the court order even as he alleged that the Department of Agrarian Reform started last year the process of recognizing the land as agricultural while the owner-company was intending to use the property for agro-industrial purposes.