PHILIPPINES: Sixty two farming families face loss of land

Dear friends,

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) writes with deep concern over the plight of sixty two farming families who face the threat of losing their land in the province of Bukidnon after they were excluded as beneficiaries for land distribution despite the fact that they have been farming the land for at least 15 years. Their names were replaced with persons who have never cultivated the land.

CASE DETAILS: (According to information received from the Task Force Detainees of the Philippines (TFDP-Mindanao))

The Don Carlos Bukidnon United Farmers Association, Incorporated (DCBUFAI), where the 62 families affected farmers are attached, was formerly the defunct BFI-Carlos Bukidnon Farmers Association. It was first registered in 22 April 1997 with 224 members. After changing their name, they had also obtained a new Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) registration no. H1999-00214.

However, their membership has reduced to 109, including the 62 families mentioned above who now face threats of losing the land they cultivate and from which they get their means of subsistence.

Even before they became an association, these farmers had already entered the landholdings of Bukidnon Farmers, Inc. (BFI) on individual capacity from 1986. It lasted for succeeding years until the management of the BFI had them recruited into planting corn and other crops in between the coconut trees the BFI had planted purposely to maintain its cultivation. But when the BFI close down after having been sequestered, the farmers have not been given any compensation.

At present, each of these farmers had been able to cultivate about one hectare each. The period by which each of them had been cultivating the land ranging from fifteen to twenty years respectively which they planted sugarcane, corn and rice.

However, of the 109 members of farmer, it is learned that sixty-two of them have not been included in the list as beneficiaries for land distribution under the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Programme (CARP), a law which provides distribution of land to landless farmers, which is being implemented by the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR). This is despite them having been included in the list during a pre-screening in 1996.

They were said to have been excluded from the list for reasons that they were not in the original list which is not true. The reality that the farmers have been actually possessing and since cultivating the land for many years was also ignored. They, however, learned that the new list of names of the beneficiaries recently issued are persons who are either not residents of Don Carlos or have never cultivated the land.

They have also learned that the land these farmers had been cultivating have in fact already been covered by a Certificate of Land Ownership Award (CLOA), which means the occupants have already have the legal right to claim ownership under the CARP. However, they only came to be aware of this until recently.

To affirm the farmer’s claims, on 24 January 2000, the office of the Barangay Reform Council (BARC) issued a certification which affirms that the 62 families of farmers are residents of the place and has since been cultivating the land reform for many yeas.

On 8 October 2008, the farmers filed a petition to have their names included as beneficiaries with the regional officer of the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR), Region X, in Cagayan de Oro City. The certification that the BARC has issued was also included in the farmer’s petition which the farmers filed.

Nine days later, October 17, John Maruhom, DAR regional director, forwarded the farmers’ petition to Norberto R. Amora, provincial agrarian reform officer in South Bukidnon. The endorsement has had a notation and called for the attention of Adones Obsioma, chairman of the Task Force BFI, for him to evaluate and take appropriate action.

On 6 November 2008, the farmers once again followed-up their petition at Obsioma’s office. Though his secretary has already confirmed of having received the DAR communication but she was not aware of what action he had taken, if there is any. His secretary also could not tell exactly when Obsioma would return to his office.

On 7 November 2008, they made another follow up again by going to the office of the Municipal Agrarian Reform Office (MARO) but they were told that Obsioma was on leave.

On 9 December 2008, they wrote a letter to John Maruhom, DAR regional director, informing him that for several occasions that they made follow-up with Obsioma’s office they have not been able to meet him and always been told by his secretary he is not around. This prompted the farmers to proceed to several offices of DAR in Maramag and Don Carlos municipalities respectively hoping they could meet Obsioma to do follow-up on their case. However their efforts failed to show substantial progress.

On 15 December 2008, the farmers were once again told that Obsioma was in Manila. Thus, at the time this appeal is being written, Obsioma is yet to take action into concluding the farmer’s petition to have their names included in the list of beneficiaries. Under the law, only the beneficiaries of the CARP upon DAR’s assessment could have the possibility of owning the land they cultivating under the land reform.

SUGGESTED ACTION:
Please write letters to concerned authorities, in particular the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR), requesting for their immediate intervention into their farmers’ plight. The farmers’ petition should be acted upon without delay and that inquiries into the irregularities in the exclusion of the farmers are beneficiaries; and the inclusion of the names of the persons who are not actually farmers.

The AHRC has also written letters to the UN Special Rapporteurs on the right to food and on adequate housing calling for their intervention.

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