Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas
The Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP) today said that the existence of vast and sprawling haciendas in the Bicol region is a testament to the persisting absence of genuine agrarian reform in the country. “Since 2014 when the Land Acquisition and Distribution (LAD) component of the CARP expired, the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) has not been acquiring additional lands for distribution to farmers and agrarian reform beneficiaries (ARBs). This has essentially protected private agricultural lands and big landholdings, including haciendas, from government acquisition and land distribution,” according to KMP leader Ronnie Manalo.
Based on DAR Bicol’s own data, it still has a “CARPable balance” of 71,726 hectares of undistributed agricultural lands in the region. Camarines Sur has 25,391 hectares; Masbate with 19,064 hectares; Sorsogon 11,198 hectares; Albay 9,702 hectares; Camarines Norte 6,298 hectares; and Catanduanes with 72.75 hectares. KMP said the actual hectarage could be higher.
Instead of acquiring private agricultural lands, the DAR and the government persist with implementing Executive Order No. 75, series 2019 and the Support to Parcelization of Lands for Individual Titling or the SPLIT program. “Under SPLIT, collective CLOAs are replaced with individual land titles, making it easier for interested businesses to seize land from individual ARBs.”
Next week, Bicol farmers will troop to the National Capital Region to assert DAR’s resolution of long-standing agrarian disputes in the region. In the Bicol region alone, vast haciendas remain intact and with pending agrarian cases lodged at the DAR. Some of them are the following:
Masbate
Ø Pecson Estate is being landgrabbed by Masbate Governor Antonio Kho which covers 1,807 hectares of land. More than 100 farmers have been displaced from the land.
Ø Some 1,854 hectares in Dimasalang and Palanan towns also in Masbate that is being earmarked for the building of the Masbate International Tourism Special Economic and Enterprise Zone by the Empark Land Development Inc.
Ø Some 1,755 hectares in Mobo, Milagros, and Uson towns for the expansion of large-scale foreign mining company Filminera.
Camarines Sur
Banco Filipino Homes Land Property (42 hectares) that displaced more than 200 farming families in Naga City
Bicol Century Development Corporation (52 hectares) in Pasacao Camarines Sur
Naga Agro-Industrial Complex (309 hectares)
Hacienda Manubay, Naga City (184 hectares)
Hacienda Veneracion, Pamplonna (244 hectares)
Hacienda Almeda (169 hectares)
Hacienda Gimenez (54 hectares)
Guballa Land Property (125 hectares)
Hacienda Bulaong (44 hectares)
Hacienda Tycangco (80 hectares)
Hacienda Canuto
Lascano and Imperial Estates (500 hectares)
Haciendas Fuentebella, Dizon and Obias (100 hectares)
Villafuerte landholdings
Hacienda Peralta (110 hectares)
Sorsogon
Hacienda Berenguer (700 hectares)
Albay
Haciendas Matias, Mitra, Asistio, Imperial, Alsua Estate sa Albay;
Catanduanes
San Jose (200 hectares)
Verceles, Sanchez, Santileces, Fernandez, Cua, and Soreta landholdings
