Philippines: Sumilao property sold, bought in bad faith, says lawyer

The 144-hectare former Quisumbing property in San Vicente, Sumilao, Bukidnon was sold by the landowner and bought by San Miguel Foods Inc. (SMFI) in bad faith, according to a lawyer of Sumilao farmers.
Atty. Marlon Manuel, of the alternative law group Saligan, said there is strong basis to contest the validity of the sales transaction between former landowner Norbeto Quisumbing and the San Miguel food giant since the land involved was covered by a conversion order with clear-cut conditions and a specific completion period required by law.
“SMFI bought the land from the Quisumbings in 2002, barely three years after a highly controversial land conversion order was approved with finality. SMFI could not have been unaware that the piece of prime agricultural land that it bought was bound by a development plan with a specific five-year completion period required by law. As buyer, it could not claim innocence to the previous owner’s obvious intent to evade the agrarian reform law through a conversion plan that had not even taken off when the sale took place,” said Manuel.
SMFI said earlier that it bought the land in good faith and that it had a clean title for the property.
However, the Sumilao farmers who walked 1,700 kilometers from Bukidnon to Manila to present their case to the government said that instead of implementing the five-year development plan as required by the conversion order, Quisumbing had the property registered under another title and sold it to SMFI.
“Clearly there was an obvious intent by the former landowner to avoid the applications of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Law to his landholding. That is prohibited by law,” said Manuel.
Manuel added that the property on which SMFI is currently building a hog farm, is officially determined by the Presidential Agrarian Reform Council (PARC), the provincial agricultural officer of Bukidnon, and the National Irrigation Authority as “a piece of efficient agricultural land that has qualities and irrigation facilities that favour the growth of crops.”
“This land may not be used for other purposes without a conversion application properly filed by SMFI and approved by the DAR (Department of Agrarian Reform). SMFI is building a hog farm without a conversion order. The present construction activities are patently illegal and should be promptly stopped,” said Manuel.
Meanwhile, the Sumilao farmers, mostly Higaonons or of Higaonon descent, held a tribal ritual in front of the San Miguel Corp. office at Ortigas Center in protest of what they said was the company’s “witting or unwitting participation in the mockery of agrarian reform.”
Napoleon Merida Jr., chairman of San Vicente Landless Farmers Association (SALFA), said SMFI should not tarnish its image by being party to a grand deception perpetrated by former landowner Norberto Quisumbing.
“SMFI is a respectable company. I hope it will listen to the cries of the farmers. We want our land back. Quisumbing violated the conversion order, so the land which was previously awarded to us should be given back to us,” said Merida.—(30)

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