Filipino farmers protest long-delayed proposed laws on agrarian reform

During Women’s Month, landless peasant women led by farmers from Negros Occidental have their heads shaved on Monday, March 9, 2015 outside Batasang Pambansa in Quezon City, to protest landlord-politicians’ blocking of the passage of CARP bills in Congress. (Photos by Jimmy Domingo - Task Force Mapalad) — During Women’s Month, landless peasant women led by farmers from Negros Occidental have their heads shaved on Monday, March 9, 2015 outside Batasang Pambansa in Quezon City, to protest landlord-politicians’ blocking of the passage of CARP bills in Congress. (Photos by Jimmy Domingo – Task Force Mapalad)

MANILA – Filipino farmers from Negros Occidental province who were demanding lands from the government trooped Monday to the House of Representatives and have their heads shaved to protest the failure of law makers to immediately pass bills that will extend and overhaul the implementation of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP).

Among those who joined the protest were 15 peasant women, who assailed the Visayan bloc in Congress for blocking the passage of House Bill 4296 and House Bill 4375. They accused House Majority Leader Neptali Gonzales II for refusing to schedule for plenary debate the proposed laws despite being certified last year by President Benigno Aquino as a priority measure with the Senate passing on third and final reading its counter-part bill in September 2014.

“Ngayon pong buwan ng mga kababaihan ay nagpakalbo po kami para iprotesta ang mga bingi, bulag, at walang pakiramdam sa Kongreso. Ang mga hacendero-politiko po sa Kongreso at ang kanilang mga pamilya ay ubod ng sakim. Nakakakain po sila ng masasarap, nakakapamasyal po kung saan nila gusto, at napapag-aral ang kanilang mga anak sa magagandang eskwelahan dahil sobra-sobra na po ang kinita nila mula sa aming pinagpaguran. Habang kami po ay nanatiling alipin, di nakapag-aral, at halos walang makain kahit kami ang nagpapagod sa bukid,” said Dorita Vargas, a farmer-leader belonging to national peasant federation Task Force Mapalad (TFM).

“Nagsuot din po kami ng dilaw na t-shirt para ipaalala rin kay Pangulong PNoy ang pangako ng kanyang inang si Pangulong Cory na kami ay magkakalupa sa ilalim ng CARP. Bakit ang program para sa magsasaka na s’ya lamang aming sandalan para maahon sa kahirapan ang s’yang ginagawang dahilan na balakid kaya ayaw nilang ipasa ang HB 4296? Responsibilidad ng mga taga Kongreso na tiyakin ang maayos na implementasyon ng CARP. Kaya nga dapat din nilang isabatas agad ang HB 4375. Di kaya tumututol sila dahil tinatamaan na ang kanilang pansariling interes?” Vargas further said.

Vargas, a single parent of six, becamea sugarcane farm worker in Negros Occidental when she was 13 years old. In 1996, the Department of Agrarian (DAR) Reform started to cover under CARP the 126-hectare Hacienda Canticibil-Manalo in the village of Robles in La Castellana town where Vargas was working.

But because of the DAR’s immediate action in distributing the landholding to Vargas and her fellow CARP beneficiaries, the landowner of the hacienda had managed to evade the program by splitting the ownership of the hacienda into nine titles and later into 52 titles, which almost left the DAR with no more land to distribute to Vargas and other beneficiaries.

As a result, only five hectares of the 126-hectare property had been awarded to 17 farmer-beneficiaries of the CARP including Vargas or less than 3,000 square meters per beneficiary. Under the CARP, a beneficiary can own up to three hectares.

“Kaya nga po ang gusto namin ay agad isabatas ang HB 4296 at HB 4375 para maayos ang implementasyon ng CARP at mapagbayad ang mga hacendero na lumabag sa CARP Law sa pamamagitan ng kung anu-anong porma ng pandaraya at pag-iwas sa programa,” Vargas said.

HB 4296 seeks to renew for two years the DAR’s authority to issue notices of coverage and provide adequate funding for support services to agricultural landholdings that have not yet been placed under CARP. And HB 4375 seeks to create an independent Agrarian Reform Commission to review the actual accomplishment of CARP and investigate circumvention and violations of the CARP Law with a view to cause these landholdings to be redistributed to qualified beneficiaries.

HB 4375 does not yet have a counterpart measure at the Senate and needs to be certified by the President as a priority measure.

Another female TFM farmer-leader, the 68-year-old Salvacion Bravo, became among the stockholders of the 170-hectare Hacienda Anita-OSV Farm in the village of Concepcion in Talisay City starting in 1993. The sugarcane hacienda, managed by Rosario Cabral was placed under the stock distribution option or SDO scheme in 1993, which was similar to what was done to the Cojuangco-Aquino clan’s Hacienda Luisita in Tarlac. But after 22 years of being a stockholder of the hacienda, the life of Bravo and her 13 children did not improve.

“Naloko kami. Kasama daw sa SDO ang libreng educational assistance para sa aking mga anak. Babahaginan daw kami ng kinikita ng hacienda. Pero hindi totoo ang educational assistance. At kung may ibinabahagi sa aming kita mula sa SDO, kakarampot lang, habang ang management ay milyon-milyong piso ang kinikita sa hacienda,” said Bravo, who started working in the hacienda when she was only 18-years old.

In the whole 22 years, each farmer or stockholder of the hacienda only received a stock share of about P1,600 yearly or about P133 monthly,” according to Bravo. She said the management had refused to give work to some of her children when it found out that the Bravo family was against the SDO scheme and were campaigning for the land to be directly distributed to farmer-beneficiaries.

“CARP evasion ang nangyari sa pamamagitan ng SDO. Sobrang hirap at gutom ang inabot namin. May mga oras na pumapangos na lang ng tubo ang aking mga anak, mairaos lang ang gutom. Kung may pambili naman ng bigas ay di pa rin kasya para sa aming lahat. Kaya ako at ang aking asawa ay di na lang kakain para may makain angaming mga anak,” Bravo said.

Vargas said peasant women were thankful that a woman President started a social justice program 27 years ago via the CARP. But she said they are afraid that Cory’s promise would just die under the term of her very own son.

“Alam po namin Pangulong PNoy na matagal n’yo nang sinertipikahan bilang urgent ang HB 4296. Ngunit di po ito sapat para makunsenya ang mga CARP killers sa Kongreso. Nawalan na po sila ng konsensya dahil sa sobrang kasakiman. Sana po ay muli ninyo kaming samahan sa aming pakikipaglaban sa lupa dahil alam po naming ang nais n’yo ay katulad din ng nais ng inyong ina,” Vargas said. (Mindanao Examiner)

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