The Makabayan bloc of the House of Representatives is seeking a congressional probe into alleged conflicts of interest and land disputes in the Yulo King Ranch (YKR).
House deputy minority leader and ACT Teachers party-list Rep. France Castro eyed an inquiry into the affairs of the Yulo King estate owned by the family of Environment Secretary Ma. Antonia Yulo-Loyzaga with an eye on the farmers’complaints.
Castro said her group earlier filed a congressional resolution on the matter to provide the farmers a voice to air their grievances.
“Kailangan naman tignan din ng Marcos administration itong problema ng ating mga magsasaka dyan sa Yulo ranch (We need the Marcos administration to look into the problems of the farmers in the Yulo rancho),” Castro said.
Secretary Yulo has yet to comment on the issue.
Castro said her group intends to review the call for an investigation into the matter “to scrutinize the concerns of farmers regarding the alleged conflict of interest of (Secretary) Yulo in the Yulo King Ranch.”
In July 2016, the Makabayan bloc filed House Resolution 50 asserting that the Yulo King Ranch Corp. came into being after a 39,239-hectare land in Coron and Busuanga in Palawan was declared by the government as a pasture reserve through Proclamation 1387.
The resolution stated that after the EDSA People Power 1, the land was sequestered by the Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG) and assigning the Bureau of Animal Industry as the estate’s fiscal agent to administer the land.
In March 2010, the Supreme Court lifted the sequestration order in response to YKR Corp’s motion to lift the sequestration filed in October 1996, the resolution added.
The Makabayan bloc claimed that a study would show there were already farmers cultivating the land even before Proclamation 1387 was issued. The farmers were reportedly given “token” compensation by the YKR Corp.