|
THE Sumilao farmers are planning to send a delegation back to Manila
to push the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) and the Office of
the President for immediate action to implement the December 18
Executive Order.
The 55 Higaonon farmers, who have been holding
camp out at the DAR Regional Office in Cagayan de Oro since January
3, 2007, have grown wary of the lack of action from the DAR and the
Office of the President.
Atty. Arlene Bag-ao, legal counsel of the
Sumilao farmers, said the farmers are losing faith in the sincerity
of the public pronouncements of the Office of the President that the
government is intent on distributing the 144-hectare property to the
Sumilao farmers under the government’s agrarian reform program.
“We have been wondering why the DAR has been
waiting for SMFI to make its move while it should have already
issued a Notice of Coverage to begin the process of distribution.
They seem to have fallen into a bureaucratic stupor by refusing to
immediately put the land under agrarian reform after the December 18
order declared the land as agricultural,” Bag-ao said.
The farmers have been asking the DAR and the
Office of the President to proceed with the implementation of the
Order executed by the Office of the President revoking the
Conversion Order of the 144-hectare property in Sumilao, Bukidnon
that is being developed by San Miguel Foods Inc. into a hog farm.
The farmers have been asking the government to
immediately issue a cease and desist order to stop further
construction by SMFI and to serve the company with a Notice of
Coverage to begin the process of putting the land under agrarian
reform as promised by President Arroyo.
Bro. Xavier Alpasa, SJ of the Simbahang Lingkod
ng Bayan, acting secretariat to the Task Force Sumilao created by
Cardinal Gaudencio Rosales said that they are alarmed by the
governments inaction even after SMFI published a paid advertisement
in major newspapers signifying, among others, its intent to make
operational its hog farm beginning January 2008.
On 1995 the DAR gave the collective certificate
of land ownership award (CLOA) to the farmer-beneficiaries.
The then-Executive Secretary Ruben Torres on
1996 issued a resolution approving the conversion of the property
from agricultural to agro-industrial as requested by the Norberto
Quisumbing Sr. Management and Development Corp., which owned the
land.
The Supreme Court upheld Torres’ decision in
1999, resulting in the cancellation of the CLOA of the 165
farmer-beneficiaries belonging to the group called Mapalad.
Based on its conversion application, the
corporation presented a development proposal containing the
construction of hotels, commercial centers, and recreational parks,
processing plants, schools, among others, on the land.
Reports said the local governments of Bukidnon
supported the project because they said it will contribute to the
development in the province.
Ten years after, the proposed projects did not
materialize. The corporation instead sold the land to SMFI in 2002.
-- Ira Karen Apanay
|
