Group lambasts DAR Secretary for threat by Jul 12, 2013 2:01pm HKT THE Alyansa ng Manggagawang Bukid sa Asyenda Luisita (AMBALA) and its mother organization Unyon ng mga Manggagawa sa Agrikultura (UMA) today lambasted Department of Agrarian Reform Secretary de los Reyes for issuing a threat to them. The DAR chief issued a warning two days ago against AMBALA not to resist in signing the process of application to purchase and farmers’ understanding (APFU) as stipulated in the implementing guidelines of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program Extension with Reforms (CARPER). In the APFU an agrarian reform beneficiary (ARB) should state under oath before a judge of the city or municipal court he/she is willing to work on the land to make it productive and to assume the obligation of paying the amortization for the compensation of the land and the land taxes thereon. Failure or refusal to do so within a period of thirty days shall be considered as a waiver of right to become an ARB. This requirement however is not stipulated in CARPER or RA9700 but only gives landlords the power to identify the beneficiaries. Sec. de los Reyes has the gall to threaten the ARB’s when it is the Cojuangco family which still owes P1.33B to the ARB’s, Lito Bais, chair of UMA stated. And instead of acting on the wishes of the farmers in choosing its own accounting firm to audit Hacienda Luisita Inc. (HLI), the DAR refused to honor this and instead sought the Supreme Court’s opinion on the matter, Mr. Bais added. In fact the Supreme Court has not yet decided on the counter motion of AMBALA regarding this and for requiring DAR to explain the discrepancy in the number of hectares valued by Land Bank and the total number of hectares due for distribution. This used to be 3,396 hectares but now 4,099 according to DAR but still short of the 4,915 hectares ruled by the SC. So how can DAR assign lot assignments to ARB’s when this is not yet been decided by the SC, the UMA chair continued. More so when the DAR plans to raffle draw the lot assignments starting next week up to August 2, he added. The farmers of Hacienda Luisita will never agree to such a scheme as they have already divided and cultivated the land since 2005, Mr. Bais retorted. How then, can DAR implement this scheme, through the assistance of the military, he added. AMBALA’s position on this matter is not to move any ARB out of the land area that they have already cultivated. Bais warns the DAR Secretary that their latest attempt to dislocate the farm workers on their present farm lots and forcing them to sign equivocal and unjust promissory notes will be faced by strong opposition from the farmers. And if ever, DAR attempts to undertake this in the Hacienda, Bais is urging the farmers to greet these with protest actions. At the same time, the land should be distributed free to the ARB’s based on historical, legal and moral grounds. This should also be collectively owned, which is also allowed under the law. The Cojuangco’s already made a huge profit by keeping 1,520 hectares from the total land area of 6,435 of the Hacienda. They transformed these into industrial, commercial and residential areas. It also made P4 billion alone in the sale of 580.81 hectares and has not even paid a single centavo the 1/3 share or P1.33 billion to the farmworkers. So why should the state compensate them and ARB’s pay them yearly amortization for thirty years?
Posted on: Fri, 12 Jul 2013 08:29:00 +0000
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