LUCENA CITY—A group advocating for agrarian reform and justice said 435 farmer-beneficiaries in Quezon province’s Bondoc Peninsula will be receiving their certificate of land ownership award (CLOA) covering over 1,000 hectares of land from the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR).
In a news conference held in a local restaurant here on Monday, Jansept Geronimo, spokesman of Kilusan para sa Tunay na Repormang Agraryo at Katarungang Panlipunan, called on the government to make good its promise of support services and not just land distribution to farmer-beneficiaries in the province’s so-called agrarian hot spot areas. These included San Narciso, San Andres, San Francisco, Buenavista and Mulanay, all in the province’s third district.
“The mandate of the Department of Agrarian Reform and the Department of Agriculture is not limited to land distribution to the farmer-beneficiaries. It is also to ensure the package of support services like livelihood training, farm inputs and technology to ensure the maximum benefits from their CLOA,” said Geronimo, who sat beside agrarian farmer-beneficiaries and leaders who vowed never to let up their decade-old struggle for agrarian justice.
He added the beneficiaries, mostly landless tenant-farmers in Hacienda Reyes, will be marching on October 25 from various points to San Narciso, where the CLOA distribution will take place.
Geronimo said the tenant-farmers in Bondoc Peninsula had undergone over two decades of harassment, ejection and charges of qualified theft from various big landholdings who resisted the implementation of the government’s Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program since the 1990s.
He cited Maribel Luzara, president of Kilusang Magbubukid sa Bondoc Peninsula, who is facing over 100 cases filed against her by the Reyes family in her struggle for agrarian justice through the years.
About 844 hectares in Barangay Tala; 213 hectares in Barangay Camflora, both in San Andres town; and 74 hectares in Barangay Villa Reyes in San Narciso will be distributed to the tenant-farmers in Hacienda Reyes.
Each CLOA holder is entitled to not more than 3 hectares and will be paying about P3,000 annually up to 30 years.
Geronimo said landless tenant-farmers have long been dreaming to own a piece of the land they have been tilling in Hacienda Reyes which allegedly covers 6,000 hectares to 8,000 hectares of land in San Narciso and San Andres.
Hacienda Reyes was owned by the late-landowner Domingo Reyes, elected mayor of both San Narciso and Buenavista. His grandson, Vincent Dominic Reyes, succeeded his late-father, Victor Reyes, as elected member of the Sangguniang Panlalawigan (SP).
Asked to comment on the land distribution from the estate of Hacienda Reyes, SP member Reyes sent a message through Messenger: “Actually, I will be there tomorrow, and DAR is happy because this is one of the few events when the landowner is very cooperative to the DAR distribution program. We will address the beneficiaries, and I will be there when the CLOA is distributed.”