CITY OF SAN FERNANDO – As Central Luzon farmers braced for Pres. Aquino’s first State-of-the-Nation yesterday, they reported “worsened landgrabbing” of farmlands in the region during the first year of the Aquino government.
The Alyansa ng mga Magbubukid sa Gitnang Luson (AMGL) and the Alyansa ng mga Manggagawang Bukid sa Asyenda Luisita (Ambala) said in a joint statement yesterday that the Aquino administration would fail in its agrarian reform objectives by pursuing Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program Extension with Reforms (CARPer) along with its Public-Private Partnership Program (PPP) thrusts.
They said these two programs have led to “worsening and massive landgrabbing” of lands supposed to be owned by farmers.
“CARPer is displacing farmers in Central Luzon. It is paving the way for big landlords, real estate developers and foreign corporations to control productive agricultural land more rapidly than its precursor CARP.
t has strengthened the rights of the landlords and not of the farmers,” AMGL chairman Joseph Canlas said.
Republic Act No. 9700 or CARPer was signed into law by former Pres. Arroyo purportedly to fill in loopholes in the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program, but it was later criticized as favoring landlords by giving them the power to identify land reform beneficiaries and virtually dictating the price for their lands.
“Farmers from Nueva Ecija, Tarlac and other provinces are being victimized by widespread landgrabbing in the project areas,” Canlas said, as he reported “massive cancellation of Certificate of Land Ownership Awards (CLOA), Certificate of Land Transfer (CLT) and Emancipation Patents (EP) in many towns of Nueva Ecija, Bulacan, Tarlac and Pangasinan.”
Canlas cited the case of Nueva Ecija province, where the bulk of the farmer-beneficiaries of CARP is located, covering about 41 percent of the lands or 169,375 hectares which the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR), in its 2010 report, claimed to have been distributed to farmers.
“But farmers in the province are facing massive displacement as landowners and real estate developers are intensifying their claim on lands in anticipation of infrastructure projects promoted by the Aquino government,” Canlas said.
AMGL lamented that Aquino “is adopting (from the Arroyo administration) the so-called W – corridor development program in inviting foreign and local investment in the region.” It is in these areas that landgrabbing have become widespread, Canlas said.
The corridor is composed of economic zones in Masinloc and Subic in Zambales, Morong, Hermosa and Mariveles in Bataan, Clark and Magalang in Pampanga, Hacienda Luisita in Tarlac, Philippine Jewelry Center in Meycauayan in Bulacan and Gapan, Cabanatuan City and Science City of Muñoz in Nueva Ecija, then towards Baler and Dingalan in Aurora.
“Aquino’ s regional development program is not even original as it was implemented by the hated Arroyo government. Now Aquino who claim he is for reform has simply carried on her agenda and this worsens displacement of farmers,” Canlas said.
He said “land grabbing and displacement (of farmers) worsened during the first year of Aquino administration.
Canlas said landgrabbing cases have been noted to the widespread in farmlands near the interchange of Subic- Clark- Tarlac Expressway (SCTEx) and Sta. Rosa-Tarlac national road in Tarlac City and La Paz town;
some 13,000 hectares covered by the Republic Act 10083 or Aurora Pacific Economic Zone and Freeport Act of 2010 (Apeco) in Casiguran and another 312 hectares designated for the government’s Food Basket program in Maria Aurora, Aurora province;
the 386.8 hectares in 12 barangays in Bayambang town, Pangasinan claimed by the Cojuangco- owned Central Azucarera de Tarlac (CAT) Realty Corporation; some areas in the 3,100-hectares in the Fort Magsaysay Military Reservation in Laur, Nueva Ecija.
AMGL also reported more landgrabbing cases areas covered by the 57,930-hectare watershed of the Lopez- controlled Energy Development Corp. (EDC ) and California Energy (CALEN) affecting indigenous folk in Pantabangan and Carranglan towns, Nueva Ecija;
various areas in Bataan, some 300 hectares in San Miguel, Bulacan allegedly being claimed by Camarines Sur Rep. Luis Villafuerte, and 84 hectares which used to be part of Hacienda Davis in Guimba, Nueva Ecija.
“Aquino is a traditional landlord president, no different from past administrations who neglected the Filipino farmers and hindered genuine land reform,” Canlas said.
