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By Angelo S. Samonte Reporter
Malacañang said the government
is ready to distribute a sugar hacienda in Negros Occidental
province allegedly owned by First Gentleman Jose Miguel Arroyo to
sugarcane farmers claiming the land.
“The land distribution process
is underway. We ask for understanding and patience on the part of
the concerned farmers given the Arroyos have already placed their
157-hectare land under CARP [Comprehensive Agrarian Reform
Program],” Deputy Press Secretary Lorelei Fajardo said on Friday.
Fajardo said the Palace has
directed the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) to address the
plight of the farmers of the Arroyo estate in Negros province.
Besides distributing land to the
farmers, Fajardo said Mrs. Arroyo also instructed the DAR to work
for the extension of CARP by coordinating with lawmakers.
“President Arroyo favors the
CARP extension. It was, in fact, one of the agenda during the last
LEDAC [Legislative Executive Development Advisory Council]
meeting,” she said.
Farm workers of Hacienda Bacan
belonging to the militant peasant federation Task Force Mapalad (TFM)
are pushing for the coverage of the farmland under the CARP. The
group on Thursday asked leaders of the Catholic Church to help
farmers get the land.
According to TFM president Jose
Rodito Angeles, the President’s husband, Jose Miguel Arroyo is
causing the delay of the farmland’s distribution to CARP
beneficiaries. The Task Force claimed the hacienda was sold to Mr.
Arroyo in April 1994 through an auction held in Isabela.
Angeles said the hacienda was
among the landholdings that President Arroyo promised in 2001 to
give to farmer-beneficiaries through the CARP.
But Ruy Alberto Rondain, the
lawyer of the President’s husband, denied that Mr. Arroyo owns and
controls the property.
He said that in a “declaration
of trust” dated October 6, 2007, the First Gentleman stated that
the hacienda is the “exclusive property” of Rivulet
Agro-Industrial Corp. and that he only purchased the hacienda as a
trustee of the corporation.
Rondain added that Rivulet might
not even push through with the conversion of the 157-hectare
hacienda on account of Mrs. Arroyo’s order to have a moratorium on
land conversion due to the current rice shortage.
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