Sumilao farmers: Struggle for land, far from over

SUMILAO, BUKIDNON – The fight is not over yet with the Sumilao farmers whose struggle to claim their land dragged on for more than two decades. The Sumilao farmers who held hunger strikes in 1997 and a march from Sumilao to Quezon City in 2007 in order to claim the 144-hectare land that belongs to them are facing uncertainties for the remaining 94-hectare the government owes them. Samuel Merida, chair of the Mapadayonong Panaghiusa sa mga Lumad Alang sa Damlag (Mapalad) Cooperative, disclosed that San Miguel Foods, Inc. has been offering them lands covering the 94-hectare which are not irrigable. The lands being offered are about 15-20 kilometers away from where the 50-hectare land awarded to them recently is located. Worst, these lands were formerly planted with pineapples. “It will take five years before we can till those lands considering that pineapples were planted there and definitely the soil would be too acidic," Merida said. Peter Tuminhay, one of the Mapalad hunger strikers, said that apart from the acidity of the soil, it would be expensive for the farmers to farm away from where they live. “We need to go to the farm everyday. With the dire condition of the Filipino people today, how can we afford the fare that would amount to P46 daily? We also see this as a way of dividing the group. We cannot allow this," Tuminhay said. Tuminhay disclosed that the farmers sent a list of priority lands that the government can negotiate and buy, which are near their area, to the Agrarian Reform Office in Bukidnon. Tuminhay said San Miguel Foods violated the memorandum of agreement that both parties signed. The MOA stated that the remaining 94-hectares of land should be near where the 50-hectares of land is located. The Sumilao farmers denied the P20 million cash assistance that Ramon Ang, San Miguel Foods president, claimed he gave them. “We categorically deny that San Miguel gave us P20 million. They did not even clear the holes near the land given to us. The four-meter deep holes where San Miguel buries wasted pigs are posing danger to us, it can drown our children or the adults when water fills them during heavy downpour," Tuminhay said in the vernacular. P2M Financial Assistance On Wednesday, Agrarian Reform Director John Maruhom of Northern Mindanao, delivered the P2-million check to the farmers. Maruhom said the money came from the Agrarian Reform Enterprise and Development Program, a locally funded special project of the government through the Agrarian Reform Office. “This money is what the President promised to the farmers when the latter visited Malacañang in March. This will be used to develop the 50-hectare land that was recently awarded to them," Maruhom said. If the land will yield good results in the next three years, the money will be awarded to them. However, if the farmers fail to improve the land despite the financial assistance given to them, they will pay back the P2 million. A technical working group is created to monitor the P2- million financial assistance. The group is composed of representatives from Sumilao farmers, the social action center of the Diocese of Malaybalay and the agrarian reform office in Bukidnon. The farmers were happy to receive the money considering the huge work that entails in the preparation of the land for the coming corn planting season at the end of August. Each farmer beneficiary was awarded with one-fourth hectare for the farm lot and a 10x15 residential lot. Three families have already transferred to their new house situated in the five-hectare subdivision within the 50-hectare land awarded to them. Dodong Serona, one of the farmer marchers, said that the members of the family take turn in weeding out the land manually. “It will take time since we have to do other task in order to buy rice since we haven’t started planting yet with the farm lot allotted to us," Serona said. Serona’s siblings are also farm workers who are receiving daily wage in order buy rice and other basic needs of the people. The land awarded to the farmers became forested, a lot of trees and weeds have grown there and after the Environment and Natural Resources granted them permit to cut the trees recently, they have just started to clear the area. The farmers do not have chain saws to easily cut the trees which is taking their time to clear the lots awarded to the 163 farmer beneficiaries. Some farmers are using the felled trees to build their houses. Hilda San-ahan, 58, one of the marchers and also one of those who joined in the hunger strike in 1997, said that she has just began the clearing of his residential lot while her husband started to clear their farmlot this week. “It is difficult to clear the area manually, we don’t have chainsaws that we can use," San-ahan lamented. With the financial assistance, the farmers hope that the clearing will be hastened so they could plant in August, when the planting season of corn starts. Maruhom disclosed that an irrigation project would soon be installed in the farmers’ land within the year. - GMANews.TV