Philippines’s Finance Chief Blamed for Land-Reform Debacle over Arroyo Land

Peasant federation Task Force Mapalad (TFM) has accused Finance Secretary Margarito Teves of being the major culprit in the failure of the Land Bank of the Philippines (LBP) to issue a certificate of cash deposit for a hacienda in Negros Occidental owned by the family of First Gentleman Mike Arroyo.

“We realized that Secretary Teves, who was former Land Bank president, and is now concurrently board chairman of the bank, is still the most powerful and decisive man in Land Bank,” said TFM president Jose Rodito Angeles.

Angeles said they had earlier been puzzled by the adamant refusal of Land Bank Vice President Victoria Reyes to issue a certificate of cash deposit for the 157-hectare Hacienda Bacan, located in Barangay Guintubhan, Isabela, despite repeated orders from the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR).
Reyes reportedly refused to issue the deposit certificate on ground that Rivulet Agro-Industrial Corporation, which manages the hacienda, has a pending application for conversion of the property.

However, a check with three offices of DAR—the Bureau of Agrarian Legal Assistance (BALA), the Comprehensive Land Use Planning and Policy Institute (CLUPPI), and the DAR Region VI—revealed no such pending application for conversion.

“Reyes was supposed to issue cash deposit certificate after the Land Bank had issued a memorandum of valuation for Hacienda Bacan so that DAR could generate and issue certificate of landownership award (CLOA) for some 60 farmer-beneficiaries of the hacienda,” Angeles said.

He said they believed Secretary Teves, as Land Bank chairman, had a hand in stopping the issuance of cash deposit certificate.
“Reyes had been very cooperative with DAR before, but in the case of Hacienda Bacan, she had been very unreasonably adamant,” he said.

Angeles said even President Arroyo had made public assurance last May that the hacienda, which had been voluntarily offered for sale under the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP), will be distributed to farmer-beneficiaries.

However, weeks before the expiration of the comprehensive agrarian reform law, or Republic Act No. 6657 last June 10, the lawyer of Rivulet asked Land Bank to stop the valuation of Hacienda Bacan due to a pending application for conversion.

“Despite the discovery that the lawyer of Rivulet was lying, and despite the issuance of a memorandum of valuation, the Land Bank still refused to issue the certificate of deposit,” said Angeles.

He added: “We believe Secretary Teves had a hand in this. He had been in contact recently with DAR Secretary Nasser Pangandaman to stop the installation of farmer-beneficiaries in the property of his father, former congressman Herminio Teves, in Negros Oriental. He probably had also put pressure to stop the issuance of deposit certificate for Hacienda Bacan.”

At least 100 farmers had set up camp in front of the Land Bank office in Bacolod City last Monday to press for the issuance of the certificate of cash deposit.
Angeles said the farmers will maintain their camp out until the Land Bank responds favorably to the farmers’ demand.

Meanwhile, Sen. Aquilino Pimentel had called on the Senate to inquire into the case of Hacienda Bacan and to ask Pangandaman to explain why the land acquisition and distribution (LAD) process of CARP had stopped despite a budget of more than P1.2 billion provided under R.A. 8532 until the end of December this year.

In a privilege speech delivered last Monday, Pimental said there was nothing illegal in proceeding with the CARP process until December because of R.A. 8532.

“Considering that the LAD process is at a standstill, we should probably ask Secretary Pangandaman how DAR is spending the fund for the LAD part of the CARP,” he said. —(30)

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