Farmers seek return of farmlands

MANILA, Philippines - At least 1,030 tenant families of Hacienda Araneta in Rodriguez, Rizal sought yesterday the intervention of Liberal Party Vice Presidential bet Mar Roxas to distribute the hectares of farmlands owned by his mother to them.

The farmers challenged Roxas to prove his alleged pro-poor and pro-peasant stance by intervening in their behalf for the family of his mother to drop the case it filed before the Supreme Court to stop the land distribution.

The farmers from Mascap in Rodriguez town met with reporters yesterday as they asked anew the Supreme Court to immediately rule on the petition filed by Roxas’ mother, Judy Araneta, stopping the transfer of the land ownership to them.

The farmers claimed they were granted titles to the 1,654-hectare land in 1972 under the government’s comprehensive agrarian reform program (CARP), but could not assert ownership because of the opposition by the Aranetas, which found its way to the High Tribunal.  

The land was declared under land reform on June 15, 1988.

Nelia Zonio, Barangay Mascap chairperson, said her family and those of other tenants have already paid P2,600 per hectare and have been paying religiously the land tax from 1972 up to present, but cannot get their hands on the land for 38 years now.

The farmers disclosed that many of the original agrarian reform beneficiaries have died already, including some of the leaders who led the fight to get hold of the land from the Aranetas.

Florente Quimzon, president of Samahan ng Magsasaka sa Mascap, invited representatives of the High Court and the Aranetas to personally visit the estate in question so they will understand the situation better.

The Aranetas tried to stop the land distribution by seeking the conversion of the land from agricultural to commercial-residential, which then Agrarian Reform secretary and now Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago rejected.

Santiago placed 7.5 hectares of the hacienda for immediate acquisition with a purchase price of P50,000 per hectare. Later, she expanded the land reform coverage by placing 1,266 hectares under land reform, with an offered lump sum purchase price of P3.3 million.

The Aranetas’ tried to overturn Santiago’s refusal by appealing with the DAR adjudication board, which also sided with the farmers.

The family then resorted to legal technicalities and raised the case to the Court of Appeals and, finally, to the Supreme Court, where it languishes for years now.