DAR Misleading Public on Arroyo Lands, Says TFM

The Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) is misleading the public on the actual distribution status of Arroyo lands for the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) by coming out with a statement that the Arroyos have already distributed some 574 hectares of land in Negros Occidental, according to the peasant federation Task Force Mapalad.

TFM president Jose Rodito Angeles said that most of the alleged distributed lands are actually on leaseback arrangement and thus remain under control of the Arroyos. Leaseback is an arrangement when the farmer beneficiaries lease the said landholding awarded to them to the former landowner to cultivate. At the same time, the former landowner hires the farmer beneficiaries who now own the land by virtue of Certificates of Land Ownership Awards (CLOA) as farm workers.

Angeles added that the farmer-beneficiaries have not received any government support service, which is crucial in ensuring the productivity and development of their supposed land.

“Our own records show that of the more than 1,100 hectares of Arroyo lands promised for distribution under CARP by President Arroyo in May 2001, only 556 hectares have been distributed and 544 hectares remain to be distributed,” said Angeles.

DAR in a recent statement said that the Arroyo family has distributed 120 hectares of Hacienda Manolita in Barangay Payana, Binalbagan; 87 hectares of Hacienda Namulo in Barangay Calapi, Hinigaran; and 367 hectares of Hacienda Camang-camang in Barangay Camang-camang, Isabela.

Angeles said these lands were distributed under voluntary offer to sell (VOS) scheme of CARP more than three years ago, and that most of the Camang-camang area are stony land and were sold to government for resettlement of Aetas.

He added that the Arroyo haciendas that have remained undistributed and which DAR has not been acting upon include some 30 hectares of the 197-hectare Hacienda Grande in Barangay Robles, La Castellana; some 150 hectares of the 157-hectare Hacienda Bacan in Barangay Guintubhan, Isabela; 88 hectares of Hacienda Alipion in Barangay Lalagsan, La Castellana; the 48-hectare portion of Hacienda Olimbo in Barangay Calapi, Hinigaran; the 58-hectare portion of Hacienda Manolita; and at least 10 hectares of Hacienda Paraiso in La Carlota City.

Angeles said that in the case of Hacienda Bacan, owned by the First Gentleman Mike Arroyo, the Land Bank of the Philippines had already deposited more than P40 million as payment for the property and the DAR had already generated the certificate of land ownership award (CLOA) of the 67 farmer-beneficiaries.

“However, the CLOA has not been registered because the Bacolod City Register of Deeds and the Land Registration Authority in Quezon City refused to register the CLOA. We have it in common knowledge that it was Mike Arroyo himself who pressured both offices not to register the CLOA,” said Angeles.

Atty. Ruy Rondain, FG Mike Arroyo’s legal counsel wrote then Provincial Agrarian Reform Officer Teresita Depenoso in November 2008, asking DAR to “cease and desist from attempting to take possession of Bacan on the grounds that: CARP had ended on 10 June 2008, just compensation had not been given to the landowner and that there is a pending petition for land conversion by the Rivulet Development Corporation.” Rivulet Corporation is the corporate owner of Hacienda Bacan, of which FG Mike Arroyo is a trustee and brother Rep. Ignacio Arroyo is the President.

Angeles questioned the motive of DAR in coming out with the statement on Arroyo lands distribution, saying “it is as if it was doing a public relations job for the Arroyo family.”

“We see DAR Secretary Nasser Pangandaman behind this. We know he is not a real agrarian reform secretary of the landless farmers; he is a mere hatchet man of Malacañang. The latest DAR statement seems to be saying that we should no longer ask for more Arroyo lands because they have given lands already,” said Angeles.

Angeles aid the President should fulfill her promise of distributing Arroyo lands because it was a moral obligation and a measure of her credibility.

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