pilgrim walk ng SUMILAO Farmers...

summary ito ng claim ng sumilao farmers na pinaikli ko...

http://otsopya.multiply.com/journal/item/196/nkkbs_k_b_abnkkbsknga

ito naman isang feature article ko tungkol kay bujekjek isa sa 55 na naglakad mula Sumilao Bukidnon hanggang dito sa Maynila...

http://otsopya.multiply.com/journal/item/195/bujekjek

Original sin
Philippine Daily Inquirer
01/23/2008

MANILA, Philippines -- The farmers from Sumilao, Bukidnon, are back, and they are calling on President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to keep her word. Will she hear them, above the cocktail chatter and the rattle of speeches in Davos, Switzerland? In large part, the answer depends on the country’s Catholic bishops, currently meeting in Manila.

The issue, as Gaudencio Cardinal Rosales has said, is justice. Do the Sumilao farmers have the legal right to the land they claim as their own? The Supreme Court, led at the time by Chief Justice Hilario Davide, had ruled otherwise, but also laid down an essential condition for the landowner to meet: development of the property, according to the landowner’s own grandiose plans, within five years. That condition was not met; in fact, it is possible to argue that the landowner had no intention to meet it, that the plans were merely a legal tactic, to exclude the disputed land from the ambit of agrarian reform. The property has since been sold to San Miguel Foods, a subsidiary of one of the country’s oldest and largest companies.

In a just world, the failure to meet the court-imposed condition should have led to the return of the 144-hectare property in San Vicente to agrarian reform coverage -- and thus to the farmers who had tilled the land. That, in brief, was the expectation the President herself raised, when she met with the farmers last month. Her decision to revoke the controversial 1996 conversion order and put the land back under the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program offered the farmers real hope, for the first time in a decade.

But the issue is also about development. Or, rather, the moral foundations of development. Do we pursue progress even when it is built or based on a crime?

San Miguel Foods Inc. has apparently offered the farmers an alternative plan, that will protect its investment in San Vicente while at the same time allowing them to own their own land, but in another, adjacent property. We say apparently, because aside from unofficial statements, the most specific form of the offer, according to Manila Auxiliary Bishop Broderick Pabillo, was decidedly vague. “The offer was not clear,” he said. “It was not even a formal offer, since we talked about it only over the phone. We cannot negotiate without any details.”

Let us assume, for the sake of argument, that there is such an offer, and that the offer, considering San Miguel’s impressive track record and traditional commitment to the communities in which it operates, is materially advantageous to the farmers. Let us even assume that it is much more advantageous than any farmer-led development of the Sumilao property we can contemplate. Is that sufficient reason to look the other way, when the law on agrarian reform has been violated?

To ask that question is to realize that the Sumilao case is ultimately about something even more basic than land. It is about our dignity as men and women who are free to choose, a dignity rooted, the bishops may well say now and as “Gaudium et Spes” reminded us then, in the very image of God. If the farmers choose what a materialistic world may consider the lesser portion, what of it? Is their choice necessarily invalid because it nets them less money? Development cannot be sustainable if it is founded on the original sin of injustice.

Unofficial statements suggest that San Miguel will consider a pullout of its investments in Sumilao grossly uneconomical. All the more reason then for it to stop construction of new infrastructure.

As a necessary next step to her revocation order, the President is morally obligated to issue a cease-and-desist order to San Miguel Foods -- if, that is, she holds herself morally responsible not only for what she does but also for what she says. On this matter, the bishops, speaking as one, can give her the benefit of their experience: They know what it means to work through the written and spoken word.

Already, much of the goodwill the President’s revocation order generated has dissipated, especially after the farmers learned that Press Secretary Ignacio Bunye failed to keep his dramatic promise to hand-deliver the order to San Miguel Foods. In a case where the system itself is at issue, the country’s poor only have the sincerity of their officials to rely on. Perhaps the bishops can issue a firm pastoral reminder about our duty not only to keep the faith, but to keep our word.

Sumilao Farmers Manifesto

17 January 2008

Manila



Last
December 17, 2007, exactly one month ago today, we sat face to face
with President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, her Department of Agrarian
Reform Secretary Nasser Pangandaman, our Governor Jose Zubiri, Press
Secretary Ignacio Bunye and several other high ranking official of our
government. Exactly one month ago today, our government, in front of
the leaders of the Church made a solemn promise – they will return us
to the land we continue to claim, the land that was once ours, the land
that is rightly ours. One month ago today, they said they will begin by
revoking the conversion order that denied us our land 10 years ago and
that it was the first step to returning the land to us.



The following day, Sec. Ignacio Bunye delivered to us the Order from the Office of the President, signed by Executive Sec. Eduardo Ermita
declaring the conversion order that took our lands from us was revoked.
The order said that Quisumbing, the former owner and San Miguel Foods,
Inc., the present owner violated the conversion order so it was
revoked. The Order was supposed to give us hope, it was supposed to
make us clap, dance and jump at our "victory." The order made us worry
and wary.


The
order reminded us of another order issued by another President in
October 1997, that was supposed to grant us 100 hectares of the 144
that was titled to us. They called that order a "win-win" resolution,
we stopped our hunger strike and broke bread with the President. Two
years after we were told we lost. We lost everything.



Despite our doubts and reservations, we gave this government, this President the space to fulfill her promise. On December 21, 2007,
we declared our 1,700-kilometer walk over and that we are going home.
The land was declared agricultural once again, no hog farm can be built
on our land legally. We had the word of the highest and the most
powerful government official of the land – the President. We had the
support of the Church – the Cardinal, the bishops, the religious and
even the ordinary parishioners. We had the support of the public who
were incensed at the injustice that was committed against us. One December 23, 2007, we went home to our families, we went home doubtful yet hopeful.



The
DAR and the Office of the President told us to wait for fifteen days.
We patiently waited. By our counting, the fifteen days ended last
January 2, 2008. We went to the regional office of the DAR last January
3, we were told to wait. And we waited and we never left the DAR
regional office, we waited right outside their gates.



The
government asked us to wait even though SMFI boldly announced to the
public that it was business as usual, they are not stopping their
construction and their hog farm will be operational by January 2008.
They told us to wait and the government did not raise even a whimper at
such a brazen affront at the Order of the President.



In
its paid advertisement, SMFI enumerated the economic benefits that it
will bring to the people of Sumilao. It said that the 144-hectares is
not raw land but a developed complex that ready to go operational. It
boasted of the millions it will pay in taxes, the thousands of workers
that it will employ and the millions that it pay in terms of wages.



To
these we ask: Is it right and just for them to illegally convert the
land because of their promised economic benefits? Didn’t the
Quisumbings say the same empty promises when they applied for
conversion? Does the 2.9B pesos they claim to have invested make their
illegal operations justifiable? What about the constitutionally
mandated social justice? Do we abandon social justice in exchange for
promises of economic benefits? If so, what is the price of justice for
the marginalized, the poor and vulnerable like us?



SMFI
also questioned the legality of our being qualified beneficiaries to
the land citing the fact that we were never tenants to the land and
that some of us are beneficiaries to the 66-hectare Carlos estate and
are therefore no longer qualified to become beneficiaries.



Don’t
their lawyers know their law? Don’t they know that under the
Comprehensive agrarian reform law landless farmers need not be tenants
to become beneficiaries? Indeed, there are some of us who are
beneficiaries of the Carlos Estate. We never hid that fact. But does
their receiving between 0.2 and 0.9 make them no longer landless? Don’t
they know that the law defines a family size farm enough to sustain a
family is 3 hectares? Of course they know all these, they just want to
cast doubt about the legality of our claim and their accusations do not
hold any water.



Yet
despite these, the government told us to wait patiently while the 15
days extended from January 2 to January 17 just because Secretary Bunye
reneged on his promise to personally deliver the order of the Office of
the President to SMFI the very day it was issued. He did not even
bother to explain why it took them more that two weeks to deliver. They
made us wait while they took their time studying our petition for the
issuance of a cease and desist order, yet the studying never ends.
Until today they are still studying. Or are they?



While
we waited, and the government was busy with their study of the cease
and desist order, SMFI continued building its hog farm, depriving us
more and more of our land every day. Yet the government waited.



The
waiting ends today. We have waited for a month. The government did
nothing for a month. How many hectares did we lose after a month? How
much more do we wait.



Today we stop waiting. Today, we begin our walk
anew.



The
last time we walked from our homes to the halls of power in Malacañang
to knock at the hearts and conscience of the powerful. It appears they
will not use even an ounce of their power to make good of their promise
of returning us to our land. Today, we begin walking the opposite
direction. We will walk to the homes of the people beginning with the
young in theirs schools, then to the faithful in their Churches. We
will knock at the hearts and conscience of the ordinary people as we
continue to knock those of the powerful. We will walk on and on until
our steps will lead us back to our homes to till the land that is
rightly and justly ours.



We
will walk with our faith intact. We will continue to walk the way of
peace with the Church, its leaders, clergy and the faithful beside us.
We continue to walk to soften the hearts of the rich and powerful, we
will walk to strengthen the will of the just and the faithful.



Today
we begin the Walk for Land, and Walk for Justice again. We will not
stop until we our land is returned to us. We will continue walking
until justice is ours.





SUMILAO FARMERS

UPDATES


· Last
Dec. 18, 2007, the Office of the President issued the revocation of the
Conversion Order but failed to give the Notice of Coverage and the
Cease and Desist Order which could have given teeth to the said
revocation order.


· The Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) continues to refuse to perform its duty to issue the Notice of Coverage


· To
address the inaction of the DAR and the Office of the President, the
Church Task Force on Sumilao, headed by Bishop Broderick Pabillo, was
formed


· The Sumilao Farmers started to camp in front of DAR Region 10 office since January 3, 2008


· Jan 10, 2008, in a seemingly hopeful development, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and DAR Secretary Pangandaman met with Bishop Ledesma and Bishop Pabillo in Koresko Hotel in Cagayan de Oro. In the said meeting, PGMA promised to refer to Chief Legal Counsel Sergio Apostol the issuance of a Cease and Desist Order.


· On January 11, 2008,
Bishop Ledesma and Bishop Pabillo entered the 144 hectares of land
being controlled by San Miguel Foods Inc. (SMFI) right after the two
bishops held a mass outside the fenced property in Barangay San
Vicente, Sumilao, Bukidnon.


· In
the said subject property, SMFI continues to fast tract the illegal
construction of a piggery thereby further damaging the prime
agricultural land even as a dialogue with San Miguel Corporation (SMC)
President Ramon Ang has been set.


· San Miguel Corporation (SMC) sent a letter to DAR Region 10, telling the latter not to issue a Notice of Coverage


· Sec
Apostol asked for a copy of the Sumilao farmers’ motion for the
issuance of a Cease and Desist Order which was filed at the Office of
the President on Jan 2, 2008. He was furnished an additional copy on Jan 14, 2008.


· The Sumilao farmers returned to Manila
on Jan 17. On their first day, a press conference was held in which
Cardinal Rosales and Bishop Pabillo together with the Sumilao farmers
explained the reason for the farmers return and express disappointment
over continuing injustice.


· Quisumbing,
the grantee of the conversion order which was violated and consequently
revoked, asked the Supreme Court to invalidate the Dec 18, 2007 revocation order. The SMFI filed a Motion for Reconsideration before the Office of the President.


· The
Sumilao farmers have once again committed to endure until their
ancestral land is returned to them. They encourage the people to walk
with them as they leave their mark and battle injustice armed with
faith and the solidarity of other farmers who have long been suffering
injustice without remedy.


· The Sumilao farmers are:


o Enduring
(our) steps to end the 12 years of suffering and injustice so the
Office of the President and the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR)
would:


§ Enforce the revocation order! (Issuance of Notice of Coverage and the Cease and Desist Order now)


§ Enjoin San Miguel Corporation to stop the illegal construction of the piggery in Sumilao!


§ Ensure the installation of Sumilao farmers in the 144 hectares!


§ Enact a reformed CARP Law!


· The Sumilao
Farmers have been visiting universities and parishes where forum/talks
with the students, parishioners, and other community members are
conducted


o To sponsor and participate, you may contact: Simbahang
Lingkod ng Bayan (SLB) Office through the following: (02) 4265968, (02)
4266101 locals 3440-3441, email: slb@admu.edu.ph

(pakicross contact na din ako ahehehe...)



Manalangin. Manindigan. Makialam.