12 Sumilao farmers return, church ‘fed up’ with Palace inaction

Fed up with Malacañang’s continued inaction on the plight of the Sumilao farmers, Catholic Church officials renewed their call Thursday for President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo to stand by what is right. The call came as 12 of the 50 farmers returned to Manila, a month after Mrs Arroyo issued an order placing the 144-hectare property in Sumilao, Bukidnon under land reform. A Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) statement said Manila Archbishop Gaudencio Cardinal Rosales and auxiliary bishop Broderick Pabillo welcomed the farmers. Pabillo is also the head of the CBCP National Secretariat for Social Action (Nassa). “The issue here is justice. These farmers are being grounded of their rights ... We ask the government to stand by what is true and what is just," said Rosales. He added the people should know that an injustice has been done and support the farmers in getting back their land, which “they’ve been waiting for so many years." Rosales also defended the farmers’ decision to reject San Miguel Foods Inc.’s “solution" to the Sumilao land controversy. The SMFI earlier offered to look and acquire land of same size, which it will give to the farmers. It also promised to give them jobs in the agro-industrial complex mandated to give salaries and wages according to the standards of the SMFI. But Rosales said that the real issue could there be justice to the farmers who have the prior rights over the disputed land. “Development, profit and employment can’t be built on an injustice," he said. “The issue is about justice and it must be addressed." For his part, Pabillo justified the Church’s all-out support with the Sumilao farmers, saying that what they are fighting for is right. “That’s why we are behind them," said Pabillo, who was designated by Rosales as the head of the Church Task Force on Sumilao. The 12 peasants are among those who participated in the 1,700-kilometer walk from Sumilao to Manila. Among them are Rene Peñas and Linda San-ahan. San-ahan said they have returned to make sure that the land they have long been claiming be returned to them the soonest. She said they want to avoid of a scenario ten years ago wherein they trusted a government promise of land distribution just to stop their hunger strike but still nothing happened. Peñas said that after the issuance of the December 18 revocation order by the Arroyo, they have waited for the government to take the next steps. However, he said, they have not seen any indication that the government is serious in fulfilling its promise of returning the property to them. Instead, said Peñas, all that they saw was the expansion of the construction of San Miguel Foods, Inc. within the contested land. “We can no longer take this sitting down. We have been camping out of the DAR-10 since January 3 but nothing happened," he said. - GMANews.TV