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SPECIAL REPORT: A fact-finding mission to Palawan in June reported how the peasants of Yulo King Ranch have been dispossessed of the land they were tilling when it was declared a pasture land during Martial Law. Their impoverishment and landlessness show a picture of failed agrarian reform from the regime of the dictator Marcos up to Aquino.
“Pesante Pilipinas took advantage of the impoverished and desperate conditions of the affected peasants. They were recruited and deceived by this pseudo-peasant group who extorted money through annual renewal of membership fees, monthly dues and collections for operational expenses. Nothing, however, materialized from their promises.” Coron-Busuanga Fact-finding Report
SPECIAL REPORT: A fact-finding mission to Palawan in June reported how the peasants of Yulo King Ranch have been dispossessed of the land they were tilling when it was declared a pasture land during Martial Law. Their impoverishment and landlessness show a picture of failed agrarian reform from the regime of the dictator Marcos up to Aquino.
“To reopen the case is but to afford due process to the complainants.”
BACK STORY | The Hacienda Luisita massacre: How it happened
The DAR said that from 2011 to June 2014, Landbank disbursed P4.052 billion ($92.94 million) representing the cash portion of landowners compensation to more than 4,000 landowners whose lands were distributed to farmer-beneficiaries of the agrarian reform program. Of this amount, P471.50 million ($10.48 million) was paid to Hacienda Luisita. Incorporated (HLI).
On the average, a hectare of land yields 100 cavans of rice. The 53 hectares of land destroyed could have produced 5,300 cavans of rice per harvest season or 10,600 cavans for one year. A cavan is equivalent to 50 kilos.
In the past months, more than a hundred hectares of land in the villages of Balete and Cutcut were bulldozed and reclaimed by security guards of the Cojuangco-Aquinos.
“They destroyed everything. After felling our banana trees, they even got the fruits. They did the same with our squash. They did not spare our palay seeds, 12 cavans of it, which we were supposed to plant this July 15.”
“CARPer is not just a gigantic historical failure but a man-made catastrophe to the farming sector of the region that deserves no legislated ‘resuscitation’ or revival but a natural death and an unmarked grave.”
“A genuine agrarian reform scheme will address the centuries-old problem of peasant landlessness, which the CARP has not solved and in fact worsened. Up till now 7 out of 10 farmers do not own the land they till, in some regions like Southern Tagalog and Central Luzon it is 8 out of 10.” – Bayan Muna Rep Neri Colmenares
The luxurious resort Pico de Loro was built on land taken away from the farmers. The land was supposedly awarded to the farmers by virtue of the government’s Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program but it also sold the same to a real estate developer owned by the richest man in the country.
‘The continued existence of haciendas and the escalating attacks on farmers here are concrete proofs that after 26 years, the pro-landlord CARP is an epic failure.’ – Rafael Mariano, KMP
For 20 years agrarian reform beneficiaries waited out the snail pace processing of land distribution by the Department of Agrarian Reform only to be told that part of the land that was supposed to be awarded to them was taken by the provincial government while another part is being offered for lease to Dole Philippines.
“Why can’t the DAR allow us to continue cultivating the land we have occupied since 2005?”
Hundreds of farmers and their supporters are facing various criminal charges filed by Tadeco, Tarlac police and the DAR-hired survey firm.
Two years after the Supreme Court ordered the distribution of Hacienda Luisita lands to farmworker-beneficiaries, the Cojuangco-Aquinos, with the help of the Department of Agrarian Reform, have been doing everything to maintain their stranglehold on Luisita, and to provent farmers from taking control of their own land.
On the second anniversary of the Supreme Court ruling on Hacienda Luisita, farmworker-beneficiaries stormed the main office of the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR). They called on Secretary Virgilio delos Reyes to face them in a dialogue but neither the DAR chief nor any of his representative talked to the farmers. Instead, anti-riot police pushed Hacienda Luisita farmers out of the DAR compound.
Two years after the SC decision, Hacienda Luisita farmers said DAR has not performed its mandate of distributing the land.
“What they are doing to us is inhumane. Where is justice?” – Jaime Quiambao, one of the arrested farmers of Hacienda Luisita
Renato Mendoza, a leader of the Alyansa ng Magbubukid sa Asyenda Luisita has but one message for President Aquino: “Order your family to stop grabbing our land.”
“The DAR must stop the continued bulldozing and fencing of agricultural lands by the Cojuangco-Aquino owned Tarlac Development Corporation (Tadeco), Luisita Realty Corporation (LRC) and Central Azucarera de Tarlac (CAT).”
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