Banana growers buck move to amend agrarian reform law

The Philippine Banana Growers and Exporters Association Inc. (PBGEA) is opposing legislative moves seeking to amend Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Law (CARL) or Republic Act 6657 (RA 6657) which will affect the viability of commercial banana plantations.

PBGEA noted that several bills proposing to change certain provisions of CARL, Senate Bill (SB) 167 authored by Senator Sergio Osmeña III, SB 1597 authored by Senator Ramon Magsayay Jr. and SB 1666 authored by Senator Juan Flavier have provisions for the transfer and sale of CARL-acquired lands – but all of which failed to consider that commercial banana operations require large-sized farms and firm growership contracts to sustain their viability.

SB 1597 allows the subdivision of awarded lands where at least five annual amortizations have been paid, with new titles issued to the subdivided lots.

"Titles to portion of the land considered fully paid are allowed to be mortgaged under this bill. But when lands mortgaged are foreclosed, such foreclosure will result in the fragmentation of the current configuration of a plantation," said PBGEA president Rodolfo G. del Rosario Jr.

On the other hand, SB 1666 calls for a mechanism to be set up in securing approval from the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) beneficiaries who wish to mortgage his rights over the land if the same is not yet fully paid.

Rodolfo said however, that "experience has shown that getting approval from DAR entails a long and tedious process."

On the other hand, SB 167 or "An Act Allowing the Sale, Transfer, Mortgage, Lease, Usufruct, Conveyance of Lands Awarded under the CARL," also legalizes the use of lands acquired under CARL as collateral for bank loans.

Del Rosario said that while PBGEA is generally supportive of extending more rights to farmer-beneficiaries, the law should also ensure that the profitability of commercial banana plantations are not sacrificed in the process.

"All contracts over the land entered into by the farmer-beneficiary and third party investors should be respected and not disturbed until such contracts will expire," said Del Rosario.

Moreover, del Rosario said that should the farmer-beneficiary intend to mortgage his rights over the land, a written consent should first be secured from the investor who has a binding contract with the farmer-beneficiary.

The PBGEA consists of corporate plantations producing cavendish bananas for export to the regional markets. These plantations are situated in Southern and Central Midanao, specifically in the regions of Davao and Socsargen.

PBGEA said that to keep operations viable, large tracts of lands are are devoted to banana cultivation to achieve economies of scale.

With CARL however, ersthwile contiguous plantations were already broken up. Economies of scale previously enjoyed by plantation-type operations were lost and most PBGEA members opted to lease or enter into grownership arrangements with individual farmer beneficaires whose areas are contiguous or with agrarian reform cooperatives in order to achieve viable-sized operations.

The PBGEA operates about 20,000 hectares and employs about 30,000 workers.