Satur: Danding's 'ties' with Arroyo could block farmers' claim

A leftist party-list lawmaker on Wednesday expressed apprehension that the Arroyo administration’s alleged “political accommodation" of businessman Eduardo “Danding" Cojuangco Jr might become a “major roadblock" to the Higaonon farmers' struggle to reclaim a landholding in Sumilao, Bukidnon. In a statement, Bayan Muna Rep. Satur Ocampo said “Mrs. Arroyo's granting political accommodation and economic concession to Danding Cojuangco is what prevents her and the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) from exercising political will to give the land back to the farmers." "Knowing Danding, the farmers will surely face stiff opposition from SMC (San Miguel Corporation) which is now the 'new landowner' of the disputed land. The order is practically the same as (former President Fidel) Ramos's so-called win-win solution," he added. GMANews.TV on Wednesday tried but failed to get the side of either Cojuangco or the SMFI on the issue. The telephone of the firm’s media relations office kept on ringing but nobody was answering. In 1997, the Higaonon farmers staged a 28-day hunger strike outside of the DAR Central Office in Quezon City, prompting Ramos to come out with a “win-win" solution on the Sumilao land dispute. President Ramos awarded 100 hectares of the estate to 137 farmers, and the remaining 44 hectares to Quisumbing. However, in 1999, the Quisumbings contested Ramos’s “win-win" solution, and won at the Supreme Court. The high court gave back all of the 144-hectare land to Quisumbing, which was later on sold to Cojuangco’s SMFI. Ocampo said the Arroyo administration's alleged “political accommodation of Cojuangco "can be seen not only in the Sumilao farmers' case but in controversial disputes particularly over the multi-billion coconut levy fund." "This also explains why Danding's SMC is now pushing for the expansion of its cassava plantation and ethanol project in more than 30,000 hectares of land in Negros, Isabela and Cagayan that the Isabela-Cagayan farmers oppose," he said. - AMITA LEGASPI, GMANews.TV