ANGELES CITY ,Philippines – Hacienda Luisita farmers marked yesterday the second anniversary of Republic Act 9700 or the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program Extension with Reforms (CARPER) at a 500-hectare portion of the hacienda already sold to a bank.
The farmers gathered to assert their alleged right to land distribution amid prospects of another referendum offering stock distribution option (SDO) as alternative, as ordered recently by the Supreme Court.
Some 200 farmers belonging to the Alyansa ng mga Magbubukid sa Gitnang Luson (AMGL) and the Alyansa ng mga Manggagawang Bukid sa Asyenda Luisita (Ambala) marched to the hacienda and accused President Aquino of “disregarding the land reform agenda and continuing programs paving the way for systematic land grabbing, displacement and land use conversion in areas that are supposed to be agricultural.”
In Manila, the militant Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP) protested at the historic Mendiola Bridge and condemned the “bogus” CARPER.
The land where the Hacienda Luisita farmers held their protest action at Barangay Balete in the hacienda was earlier sold by the Cojuangcos to the Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. (RCBC).
AMGL chair Joseph Canlas said farmers started farming in Balete last July 15 right after the Supreme Court junked SDO in the hacienda and ordered a referendum.
Canlas said CARPER is “causing massive cancellation of Certificate of Land Ownership Awards (CLOA), Certificate of Land Transfer (CLT) and Emancipation Patents (EP) in Nueva Ecija and other provinces within the region.”
“CARPER has become the methodical means of landlords, real estate developers and local and foreign investors to eject farmers from the land. It carries anti-peasant provisions of CARP such as ejecting farmers who could not afford to pay the annual amortization and those who cultivate lands that were foreclosed by the Land Bank of the Philippines (LBP). As CARPER strengthened the landlord’s hold to the lands, awarding of CLOAs to poor farmers in the region is unattainable,” he noted.
He said under CARPER, even farmers with CLOAs face the problem of the cost of their lands as dictated by the landowners.
AMGL alleged that land grabbing worsened since CARPER became law during the Arroyo administration.
AMGL also accused the military of displacing farmers within the 3,100 hectares of the Fort Magsaysay military reservation in Laur, Nueva Ecija. It also said that the 57,930-hectare watershed program of Lopez-controlled Energy Development Corp. (EDC) and California Energy (CalEn) is displacing indigenous peoples’ communities in Pantabangan and Carranglan towns, Nueva Ecija, even as some 300 hectares of tenanted lands in San Miguel, Bulacan are reportedly being claimed by Camarines Sur Rep. Luis Villafuerte.
The group also hit the Cojuangco-Aquino family on the Hacienda Luisita case.
“The Cojuangco denied that there are tenants in Hacienda Luisita since 1967. Thus, it is impossible to implement CARPER for the farmworkers to actually be given lands. CARPER empowers the Cojuangco-Aquino to dictate the amount the farmworkers should pay for the land. Hacienda Luisita lands are estimated to value from P1 million to P4 million per hectare, which is clearly unattainable for the farmers,” Canlas said. – Rhodina Villanueva