The Kilusang Magububukid ng Pilipinas (KMP) also said that the threat of earthquake is less intimidating than the “land grabbing” allegedly by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) in the province.
KMP noted in a statement yesterday that wide farmlands in Bulacan are among those identified by the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs) as sitting on top of the West Valley Fault. These lands are located in Barangays San Isidro (for merly under Norzagaray town) and San Roque in San Jose Del Monte, Bulacan.
Philvolcs said the West Valley Fault could generate a magnitude 7.2 earthquake, approximating the quake that devastated Nepal last month.
KMP Secretary General Antonio Flores said “the bogus CARP is a bigger threat to the lives and rights of farmers in the West Valley faultline.”
“For farmers living on top of the faultline, the sham CARP is like a magnitude 10 quake. This fake agrarian reform program is perpetually being used and abused by big landlords and landgrabbers to bleed, evict, and kill farmers,” said Flores.
He stressed that “the Aquino government’s plan to revive the CARP from the dead is tantamount to a death sentence to farmers.”
For her part, Sherylene Koyano, spokesperson of the Samahang Pinagbuklod ng Magsasaka sa San Isidro (Pinagbuklod), a local organization of farmers in Barangay San Isidro, accused the BSP of grabbing more than 700 hectares of lands in the area.
Koyano recalled that “in October 2014, the farmers in Barangay San Isidro received a letter from BSP Managing Director Augusto Lopez- Dee informing farmers that the BSP will conduct technical survey activities on a property located in San Isidro, Norzagaray, Bulacan with Transfer of Certificates of Titles Nos. T-48694 to T-48702 with an aggregate area of more or less 700 hectares.”
She recalled that the lands were originally being claimed by the Manila Brickworks Corp of the Puyat family and was sold to the Villar family- owned Capitol Bank (later Optimum Bank).
“In 1998, the said lands allegedly owned by the Manila Brickworks Corp. and Capitol Bank were mortgaged to the BSP. The old TCTs were cancelled and new nine titles, Transfer of Certificates of Titles (TCT) Nos. T-48694 to T-48702, were issued to BSP,” she said.
But Koyano stressed that their ancestors were already occupying and cultivating the lands since the 1960’s. “The Department of Agrarian Reform placed our lands under CARP in 1996 or two years before the highly illegal mortgage to the BSP. But only after a year, in 1997, the DAR immediately issued an order exempting our lands from coverage.
This clearly shows how the CARP was used against farmers in order to strengthen the illegal and dubious claims of landlords,” Koyano said.
Koyano said that in spite of the exemption order, the farmers were forced to pay land amortizations. ‘In fact, many farmer-beneficiaries have fully or partially paid their amortization dues under the CARP,” she noted.
“Last October 2014 the DAR regional office for Central Luzon again used the CARP law itself and issued another order exempting the lands. Clearly, the DAR added insult to the injury by using an expired law against farmers,” Koyano said.
The KMP also accused “local officials of the Department of Agrarian Reform for conniving with the BSP.”
“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 farmers have the legitimate and rightful claim over the lands,” Flores said.
The KMP and Pinagbuklod farmers are set to stage “peasants campout” in Congress this week against House Bill 4296 or the proposed bill seeking to extend the expired CARP.
KMP said “the sham CARP failed to break land monopoly” and that “CARP already expired in June 2014 and a mere extension bill cannot extend an expired law.”
“Instead of defending our legitimate rights to the lands, the landlord president and his pro- CARP allies are hell-bent in resurrecting the deadCARP which is the main culprit in the agony of farmers,” KMP said.
