THE farmers’ group Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas on Tuesday slammed President Benigno Aquino III for its Department of Agrarian Reform-brokered real estate deal between the President’s uncle, Eduardo Cojuangco Jr., and former Secretary Manuel Roxas II’s relatives, the Araneta family.
The KMP said it will hold a send-off protest rally against Aquino’s anti-farmer deal at the DAR’s main office in Quezon City.
Some 200 farmers in San Jose del Monte, Bulacan, and Silang, Cavite, led by the KMP will march to the DAR’s main office.
The KMP said more than 300 hectares of land were being grabbed from the farmers for the construction of Metro Rail Transit 7’s inter-modal depot along with its commercial and residential components.
“To this day, the Aranetas, a big landlord family of Spanish origin, continue to control tens of thousands of hectares of land in Bulacan and other parts of the country,” the KMP said in a statement.
“This is worsened by the irony that the heirs of General Emilio Aguinaldo, who claimed so-called independence from Spanish colonialism, are now leading the land-grabbing and eviction of farmers in Cavite.”
The group said farmers from the villages of Tartaria and Lumil in Silang town were now facing eviction in the more than 350-hectare Aguinaldo Estate being grabbed by the heirs of General Emilio Aguinaldo that included Transport Secretary Joseph Emilio Aguinaldo Abaya, another Liberal Party stalwart.
Earlier, incoming Agrarian Reform Secretary and KMP chairman Rafael Mariano said the 6,453-hectare Hacienda Luisita would be among the first to be subjected to a “no holds barred” review.
“We will immediately review the sham land reform implemented by the DAR in Hacienda Luisita,” Mariano said.
The KMP, the left-leaning group that Mariano heads, says the Cojuangco family “immediately maneuvered to secure their landholdings” after Mariano was mentioned as a possible DAR secretary.
The KMP cited reports by the Unyon ng mga Manggagawa sa Agrikultura on the most recent incident of violence against the farmers of Hacienda Luisita that occurred on May 30, when agents of the Cojuangco-Aquino family attempted to demolish a farmer’s house in Barangay Mapalacsiao inside Hacienda Luisita.
“We will conduct a no-holds-barred review and reversal of the DAR’s anti-farmer decisions, [declare] a moratorium on land-use conversion and a stop to the cancellation of farmers’ land ownership certificates,” Mariano said.
“This review will also include the pending petition by farmers for the revocation of the land-use conversion issued by the DAR in favor of the Cojuangcos of Hacienda Luisita.”
Farmers have complained that the Cojuangco-Aquino family has defied a Supreme Court ruling that the President’s family must distribute the land to the farmers, and claim the DAR is conniving with them.
The high court have also ordered the family to return P1.33 billion to the farmers, saying that amount came from the proceeds of the sale of some 500 hectares in the hacienda.