Church upbeat Aquino will keep word; militant farmers wary

Catholic Church leaders on Friday expressed confidence that President Benigno Aquino III would keep his word on the full implementation of agrarian reform, but vowed to remain vigilant to make sure that land distribution to farmers is completed by 2014 as promised.

Farmers across the country, however, expressed guarded optimism, hope and skepticism over the President’s pronouncements assuring landless tillers of the land due them.

Land reform advocate Christian Monsod meanwhile said that aside from the promise of land, the farmers are also holding on to the President’s commitment to support their transition from tenants to “owner-cultivators” of the land.

Monsod, the counsel for Task Force Mapalad who represented the farmers in the Malacañang dialogue with President Aquino on Thursday, said that the farmers expect the government to comply with the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program extension with reforms (Carper)’s mandate that P150 billion be set aside for the implementation of land reform for five years.

“Support services have suffered the most, as in the past,” Monsod said in a text message to the Inquirer.

He added that it was significant that the President had committed part of the agriculture budget to farmer-beneficiaries “to help their transition from tenants to owner-cultivators.”

Cagayan de Oro Archbishop Antonio Ledesma said he believed that the Chief Executive would deliver on his promises to the farmers, especially now that a multisectoral monitoring body would be set up to ensure the full implementation of Carper.

“There has been an instruction to form a monitoring body (and) we will closely follow this to see if President Aquino’s promises would have results,” Ledesma said over Church-run Radio Veritas on Friday.

The body would be composed of representatives from farmers’ groups, Church leaders, nongovernment organizations, the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) and other attached agencies involved in the implementation of Carper, said the prelate who was among the Church leaders present during the farmers’ dialogue with Mr. Aquino.

Rice farmer Nelida Carbon, chair of Makabayang Alyansa ng Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (Makabayan) in Bukidnon province expressed hope that “this assurance translates to an effective strategy to hasten CARP implementation.”  The DAR, Carbon told the Inquirer by phone, should “make the President’s words meaningful by radically improving its performance.”

She added that the DAR’s “lackluster performance” has resulted in only 3,571 hectares out of some 55,000 hectares of land in Bukidnon being placed under CARP coverage so far.

“(At this rate), it would require around 15 years to finish the program in Bukidnon,” Carbon said, adding that landless peasants also have to contend with unyielding landlords and threats to their lives as they struggle for their right to land ownership.

Rural development activist Roldan Gonzales also slammed the President’s promises as “half-hearted.”  The executive director of the nongovernment group Gitib Inc. said: “This half-hearted concern for social justice speaks volumes about the kind of state and the quality of government we have.”

Danny Carranza, secretary general of the Kilusan para sa Tunay na Repormang Agraryo at Katarungang Panlipunan (Katarungan), a coalition of moderate peasant groups in the coconut industry, said the President’s promise was “commendable” and erased doubts on the sincerity of his intention to complete his mother’s 24-year-old agrarian reform program.

At the same time, Carranza said, “DAR Secretary (Virgilio de los Reyes) must be able to say that the buck stops here. The farmers cannot afford to go to the Office of the President every time they have a problem with agrarian reform implementation.”

In Southern Tagalog, Axel Pinpin, secretary general of the Katipunan ng mga Samahang Magbubukid sa Timog Katagalugan (Kasama-TK), expressed doubts about the President’s promise to complete land distribution before 2014.

“Tell that to the Marines,” Pinpin said, adding that Mr. Aquino had failed to mention the government’s plans for Hacienda Luisita, a sugar estate owned by the President’s family.  He also cited the ongoing cases in Hacienda Yulo in Calamba City, Laguna province, and Hacienda Looc in Nasugbu, Batangas province, where, he said, certificates of land ownership award (Cloa) had been issued to the farmer-beneficiaries but the government had yet to distribute the land.

Jansept Geronimo, campaign officer of the Quezon Association for Rural Development and Democratization Services, was skeptical as well, and accused the DAR secretary of “blocking the effective distribution of lands.”

Geronimo said farmlands long awarded to the farmers have yet to be surveyed for eventual distribution while landowners were using legal maneuvers to evade compliance.

Orly Marcellana, spokesperson of the Save Bondoc Peninsula Movement, an ally of Kasama-TK, expressed similar doubts on the President’s promise, citing the 16,000 hectares of “untouched” land in southern Quezon province alone.

Quezon Provincial Board Member Victor Reyes, a landlord in the Bondoc Peninsula, meanwhile lauded the President’s move but stressed that land distribution should strictly comply with the agrarian reform law, particularly in providing just compensation to landowners.

The former San Narciso town mayor has vast estates in the towns of San Narciso, San Andres and Buenavista in Bondoc Peninsula that have been the subject of intense agrarian disputes in the past.

While he described Mr. Aquino’s actions as “very good,” Marbel Bishop Dinualdo Gutierrez also warned the Chief Executive against breaking his promise to the farmers.

“We are very happy about (his promise) and we hope that he is sincere,” Gutierrez said over Radio Veritas. “Because if (he is) not, we will continue to badger him. We will monitor his promises and if he breaks them, we will keep going back to him until the farmers are rewarded their lands.”

Fr. Anton Pascual, executive director of Caritas Manila, said he was confident that the dialogue has removed an obstacle to the implementation of Carper, especially at the local and regional levels.

Also agreed on during the President’s dialogue with the farmers was the creation of a multistakeholders mechanism to monitor the implementation of the agrarian reform program, particularly the distribution of lands, the action of DAR employees and the budget allocation for the program.

To further press their agrarian reform advocacy, Pascual said a thanksgiving Mass officiated by Manila Auxiliary Bishop Broderick Pabillo would be offered on Saturday at Caritas Manila in Pandacan, after which the farmers would be provided with canned goods and noodles to take home to their respective provinces. With reports from Delfin T. Mallari Jr. and Maricar Cinco, Inquirer Southern Luzon, and Ryan D. Rosauro, Inquirer Mindanao