KUNG SILA ANG MAPALAD, SINO ANG NASAWI?

Unbeknownst to the Catholic Bishops, in the midst of the embroilment between the so-called Mapalad Farmers and San Miguel Foods Inc. (SMFI) over the 144 hectares of land in Sumilao, Bukidnon, there lurk undisclosed facts and unresolved issues.

I happen to have taken hold of various documents showing how the implementation of agrarian reform was first curtailed by the Norberto Quisumbing Sr. Management and Development Corporation (NQSr-MDC), despite clear mandate of the law to have the land covered under the agrarian reform program. Thereafter, the selection of beneficiaries went haywire.

Here are the hard facts. The subject land bearing Title No. T-14371 in the name of NQSr.-MDC had already been placed under the agrarian reform coverage way back January 31, 1990 by the Municipal Agrarian Reform Officer of Sumilao, Bukidnon, the late Maximo N. Valmores, Sr. A Notice of Compulsory Acquisition of the 144 hectares was served to NQSr.-MDC on October 25, 1991 informing the said landowner that the distribution of the land to qualified farmer beneficiaries has commenced.

Meanwhile, DAR administrative machinery had already screened and qualified a group of farm workers from Del Monte Philippines Inc. (DMPI). The land, which was then leased to DMPI for 10 years, had been planted with pineapples. Hence, the actual tillers of the land were the pineapple plantation workers who toiled in making the subject landholding productive.

In order to prevent the pineapple workers from taking over as owners of the land, NQSr-MDC was able to secure an Order from the DAR Adjudication Board (DARAB) restraining coverage of the land under the agrarian reform program on the ground that the company had yet to finish its contract with DMPI.

In order to further prevent the Del Monte farm workers, who already formed a cooperative, from taking ownership of the land, NQSr-MDC formed its own puppet cooperative, albeit unregistered, named San Vicente Agrarian Reform Cooperative.

However, sensing that it could still evade the agrarian coverage, NQSr-MDC applied for conversion of the land into an agro-industrial zone. It was a clever act to exempt the land from agrarian coverage. Such chicanery of NQSr-MDC caught the ire of San Vicente Agrarian Reform Cooperative, now known to all as the Mapalad farmers, who became the main adversary of NQSr-MDC. NQSr-MDC did not know then that its own creation, with the support of local and foreign NGOs, would turn into a monstrous beast that would gore its own maker.

Meanwhile, the application for conversion of NQSr-MDC was disapproved by then DAR Secretary Ernesto Garilao, he being an ally of some NGOs supporting the Mapalad farmers. The disapproval was later challenged before the Office of the Executive Secretary, where it was reversed.

Upon review of the Office of the President through the prodding of the media, then President Ramos arrived at his so called “win-win formula”, giving 44 hectares to NQSr-MDC and 100 hectares to the Mapalad farmers. This scheme flopped and was thrown into oblivion.

The dispute silently toned down and for several years no clamor could be heard. Surreptitiously, NQSr-MDC sold the landholding to San Miguel Foods Inc.

The clamor of the Mapalad farmers has taken a new life. They marched to Manila decrying that the land is now ready for coverage by virtue of the Supreme Court decision. They went to big institutions in Metro Manila such as Ateneo de Manila University for support and pitched a tent in front of DAR Central Office in Quezon City.

Media played up the outcry of Mapalad farmers but did not disclose the hard facts, among others, that these farmers are not the true tillers of the land. There were prior bona fide tillers who, for ten long years, worked on the land and planted it with pineapples. These true tillers, Del Monte farm workers, had been “sidelined”, so to speak.

It was not also disclosed by DAR that the first priority in the selection of beneficiaries are the tillers and not mere residents of the barangay or municipality where the land is situated. It was even learned that many members of the Mapalad farmers do not reside in Sumilao, Bukidnon.

So, the issue now is: who has superior rights as beneficiaries over the 144 hectares of land in Sumilao, Bukidnon? Since the subject land is not burdened with tenancy, aren’t the next most qualified beneficiaries the regular farmworkers who cultivated the land?

Besides, upon cursory reading of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Law, being a resident of the same barangay or municipality would not be an unbridled license to being an agrarian beneficiary. The law has given superior rights to the actual tillers in keeping with the dictum “land to the tillers”, from where the spirit of CARP was derived.

In the end, the unfinished story of the 144 hectares of agricultural land in Sumilao, Bukidnon portrays the desperate acts of a family corporation that adamantly held on to its land at the cost of negating the thrust of the government. Poignant but a reality like the story of Hacienda Luisita.

It is also an unfinished story of the erroneous implementation of the CARP in the distribution of the land to those who truly deserve to be awarded. This merits a long second look as hundreds of people may fall victim to the wrong application of the agrarian law. In the end, the Mapalad farmers may be found to be just mere “second rate trying hard copycats” of the true tillers of the land.