In support of the farmers, Anakpawis party-list Rep. Fernando Hicap filed House Resolution No. 2112 directing the Committee on Agrarian Reform to investigate the alleged land grabbing.
The resolution said that “on October 2014, farmers of Samahang Pinagbuklod ng Magsasaka sa San Isidro (Pinagbuklod) in Barangay San Isidro, received a letter from Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) Managing Director Augusto C. Lopez-Dee informing farmers that the BSP… conduct technical survey activities on a property located in Brgy. San Isidro, Norzagaray, Bulacan with Transfer of Certificates of Titles (TCT) Nos. T-48694 to T-48702 covering more or less 700 hectares of lands.”
It said that “the lands being sought by the BSP to be surveyed in Barangay San Isidro, were originally owned by the Manila Brickworks Corp of the Puyat family. In 1995, the said lands owned by the Manila Brickworks Corp. were mortgaged to the BSP. The old TCTs were cancelled and new nine (9) titles, Transfer of Certificates of Titles (TCT) Nos. T-48694 to T-48702, were issued to BSP.”
But the resolution noted that “in 1996, at least 59 farmers were issued with Certificates of Land Ownership Award (CLOAs) but the rest of the supposed farmer- beneficiaries were not issued with certificates. It was known that the farmers are also paying real property taxes to the local governments of San Jose Del Monte City and Norzagaray town.”
“Many farmer-beneficiaries have fully or partially paid their amortization dues under the CARP. Despite this, the farmers’ CLTs and CLOAs were later on cancelled due to several exemption/exclusion orders issued by the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR),” the Anakpawis resolution stated.
Alyansa ng Magbubukid ng Bulacan-San Jose Del Monte chair Eriberto Pena said “the BSP is now engaged in land speculation and land-grabbing of more than 1,000 hectares of land in Barangay San Isidro.”
“The BSP’s so-called land banking and land speculation is tantamount to land-grabbing in San Jose Del Monte.
This land-grabbing is another black eye to the sham Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program,” Pena said.
For her part, Sherylene Koyano, spokesperson of Pinagbuklod, said “local officials of the Department of Agrarian Reform are in cahoots with the BSP and are mainly responsible in the forced eviction of farmers in San Jose nDel Monte.”
“The provincial and municipal agrarian reform officers are now acting as agents and implementors of the BSP’s land-grabbing spree. The DAR is doing this despite their full knowledge that the lands being grabbed by BSP were covered by CARP and the farmers have already paid for the lands while others are still paying their amortizations,” said Koyano.
“In the same vein, instead of defending our legitimate rights to the lands, the landlord President and the chairman of the House committee on agrarian reform are pushing for the revival of the sham CARP which is the main culprit in our suffering,” she said, referring to Aquino and House agrarian reform committee chair Rep. Teddy Baguilat.
The Anakpawis resolution stressed that “the continuing land dispute in Barangay San Isidro is a testament to the failure of the bogus CARP to defend farmers’ rights over the land and that the CARP only served as an instrument by big landlords to evade genuine and thoroughgoing land distribution.”
The farmers vowed to stage protests against the Aquino government’s push to revive the expired CARP.
“We are victims of the bogus CARP. We will fight tooth and nail to block the landlord Aquino government’s desperate attempt to revive the bogus CARP from the dead,” Pena added.
