CARP SPLITS LEFT-WING CONGRESSMEN; SATUR ACCUSED
OF HYPOCRISY
PHOTO
AT LEFT - Farmers from Camarines Sur hold a thanksgiving Mass following their
one-month walk from their province to Manila to push for the CARP extension.
EDD GUMBAN]
MANILA, DECEMBER 23 2008 (STAR) By Delon Porcalla - An ally of the militant party-list group Akbayan accused Bayan Muna party-list Rep. Satur Ocampo of being a hypocrite for accusing presidential son and Pampanga Rep. Juan Miguel “Mikey” Arroyo of being the leader of the lobby group that sought the killing of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP).
Carmina Flores-Obanil, a convenor of the Reform CARP Movement (RCM) and policy research coordinator of Centro Saka Inc., said Ocampo allegedly “colluded” with Rep. Arroyo in killing CARP in Congress.
“We found Ka Satur and his other colleagues from Bayan Muna, on several occasions, cooperating and even colluding with the anti-CARP solons,” said Obanil, whose group supports Akbayan Rep. Risa Hontiveros.
She said the Arroyo-Ocampo tandem started last June, when Congress first extended for six months, or until December 2008, the CARP law, during the deliberations over House Bill 4077, or the CARP extension bill.
“Ka Satur and his Bayan Muna colleagues took turns in delivering their privilege speeches to obviously delay discussions on the said bill and to give anti-CARP solons, such as Negros Rep. Jeffrey Ferrer, the opportunity to later question the quorum of the session which resulted in the adjournment of the session,” complained Obanil.
“We were quite surprised and equally disgusted over Ka Satur’s recent antics,” Akbayan-RCM said in a joint statement, refuting Ocampo’s accusations against Rep. Arroyo. “We find him and his other Bayan Muna colleagues part of the anti-CARP group in Congress.”
The group called the joint resolution of the Senate and the House as a “Trojan Horse” that betrayed the cause of farmers who have been hoping to own the land they have been tilling.
Lawmakers issued a joint resolution that extended CARP until June 2009, but that land acquisition is no longer mandatory but optional in favor of the landlords.
Akbayan-RCM said the group is “disgusted” over the grandstanding of Ocampo on the CARP extension bill.
Akbayan sources who were privy to the June 10 straw voting disclosed that Ocampo and his colleagues “were among those who voted against extending CARP.”
“So we were surprised that he (Ocampo) was now pointing the finger at Mikey Arroyo as the leader of those who voted against CARP during the said straw voting, when they have always been with the landlords in Congress on the issue of CARP extension,” Obanil said.
“Then recently, we have been informed by House sources that it was the office of Rep. Ferrer that facilitated the entry of farmers from the KMP (Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas), a peasant organization allied with Bayan Muna, into the gallery of the (House) session hall last Dec. 16 and 17,” she said.
“Apparently, their collusion with the landlords in Congress back-fired on them when the same landlords suddenly called for the removal of the compulsory land acquisition from CARP and now they are trying to do a Pontius Pilate and wash their hands,” added Obanil.
House allies of President Arroyo, led by Speaker Prospero Nograles, defended Rep. Arroyo on accusations that he led the killing of the CARP in Congress.
Nograles said that like him, Rep. Arroyo is only one vote in the 238-member House, and other colleagues have their own independent stand on the issue. “I don’t think so. It’s the collective decision, not just one sector or group.”
Quezon Rep. Danilo Suarez said the allegations of Ocampo, a former spokesman of the communist-led National Democratic Front, was an insult to House members who use their own mind and conscience in deciding on pending legislation.
He called it “utterly baseless, unfair and irrational.”
“To say that we were led by Mikey to dismiss the CARP is completely insulting to us. The plenary voting results are based on the discernment of individual House members. No one can dictate to us on what particular stand we should take,” Suarez reiterated.
“We always think of what is best for the people and the nation during the voting process.”
Suarez, chairman of the House committee on oversight, said that Rep. Arroyo has always demonstrated his keen support for the CARP extension. “He firmly believes that farmers ought to own the land they till.”
“To accuse him, therefore, as the leader of the landlord lobby in the House is as ridiculous as it is repulsive,” he said, calling on critics to elevate the case to the courts if they cannot accept the decision of the Senate and the House.
Palawan Rep. Antonio Alvarez said Ocampo’s allegation was absolutely baseless because Arroyo has neither power nor intention to spearhead the dismissal of the CARP extension measure.
“Mikey has no power to have the agrarian reform law killed, even if he is the son of the President. But, granting for the sake of argument that he has that power, it is highly illogical that he would spearhead such a move knowing that the drive for genuine agrarian reform is the legacy of his late grandfather, President Diosdado Macapagal,” he said.
Alvarez, chairman of the House committee on trade and industry, said critics should respect the decision of the House and Senate to extend the CARP until June 2009 instead of resorting to name-calling to demean lawmakers.
“We’ve made a decision and they should respect it, otherwise they should bring their case to the court.”
CARP beneficiaries’ dispute starts
Meanwhile, tension has gripped farm workers and their families in Hacienda San Benito, Moises Padilla town in Southern Negros after the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) set the revalidation this week of the 300-hectare land that was distributed to the farmers.
Erlito Batalion, president of the San Benito Employees and Laborers Multi-Purpose Cooperative, said the farmers are bracing for an agrarian reform impasse with another group of farmer-beneficiaries who have suddenly demanded from DAR to expand their area.
The property, formerly owned by the family of 5th District Board Member Enrique Miguel Lacson, has been covered by the CARP through compulsory acquisition in 2000, with 12 hectares awarded to 56 farmers while more than 230 hectares went to 148 original farm workers that belonged to a local cooperative.
While the farmers have long been installed on the land, a petition for inclusion is still pending.
In the meantime, the cooperative has leased back its area to the Lacson-owned MJ Lacson Development Corp.
Batalion said that while the petition is still pending, the 56 farmers and the cooperative members have been tilling and working in the sugarcane plantation.
He said the 56 farmers are now demanding from the DAR to expand their area by an additional 70 hectares. The 56 farmers have sought the assistance of Pulupandan Mayor Magdaleno Peña.
The members of the cooperative claimed that the 56 farmers do not belong to the original tillers.
They said the 56 farmers have also been coming out with paid advertisements in a local newspaper in Bacolod City calling on rebel leader Frank Fernandez of the New People’s Army to assist them in their cause. One newspaper here declined to print the open letter, after its lawyer claimed that the content of the letter is tantamount to sedition.
Batalion appealed to DAR, through provincial officer Teresita Depenoso, to declare a status quo, adding that the original tillers who are waiting to be included as beneficiaries would no longer have land if the 56 farmers led by Redelma Dechosa will have their way.
This developed as Lacson said he will support his farmers and will ensure that they would not be disenfranchised.
Farmers from Camarines Sur who recently scored victory with the reinstatement of the landholdings they were claiming under the CARP have decided to end their month-long march with a celebration and thanksgiving Mass at the EDSA Shrine yesterday.
Manila Auxiliary Bishop Broderick Pabillo, who joined them and other farmers from Negros in a hunger strike outside the Batasang Pambansa Complex in Quezon City last week, celebrated the misa de gallo, signaling the conclusion of the Banasi farmers’ protest action.
The farmers, who hail from Sitio Banasi in the municipality of Bula, Camarines Sur, also declared that the DAR order provides “sufficient basis for the dismissal of all other baseless frivolous harassment cases filed against us in relation to the classification and rightful ownership of our land.”
“The decision through the order of the DAR recognizes us as legitimate tillers of the 123 hectares of land… Our standing as proper parties to the case… was duly acknowledged, and our Motion for Intervention and Reconsideration was given due course,” said Jess Bergantin, spokesman of the Banasi Farmers.
“The decision states in clear and indisputable terms that our land was placed under CARP in 1995 through a process that was both substantively and procedurally sound,” Bergantin also said.
The Banasi farmers returned home last night to Camarines Sur on board a bus rented by the Church. They thanked their supporters as they expressed happiness that they are able to be home in time for Christmas. – With Antonieta Lopez, Katherine Adraneda