TACLOBAN CITY—At least 21 farmers in Leyte on Thursday decided to claim their rights to their land from which they were driven out by typhoon Yolanda. The land, according to a group of farmers, had been awarded to them in 1999.
“The farmers are under the Bugho Farmers Association comprising the uninstalled farmer beneficiaries in the 25 hectares of the land in the village of Matica-a, in Ormoc,” Baby Reyes, project coordinator of land rights advocacy group Rights-Network who is helping the group, told The Standard.
According to Reyes, there were originally 31 holders of Certificate of Land Ownership Awards who were installed by Department of Agrarian Reform in 1999. The number has gone down to 21 today.
“Some were already dead while a few have already transferred residences as they were greatly demoralized by the snail-paced action of DAR on our problems and issues,” said Rosenda Apay, president and spokesperson of the farmer group.
According to Apay, the former farm workers “who drove us out and who are now occupying the farms, were not identified by DAR during the process of identification of potential farmer beneficiaries 16 years ago.”
“On December 26, 1999, when we were installed by DAR, no protests from any group of farm workers were heard. We were able to clear the land which was previously planted with sugar cane…convert it into rice farms, through manual method, as we do not have any farm machineries. We were able to make it productive and were able to harvest the first fruits of our labor,” Apay said in a statement.
Apay added that by their second cropping, a group of former farmworkers who also claim to be qualified beneficiaries of the government’s Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program started to harass them.
The Standard sought comments from DAR officials in Leyte, but they said they could not yet respond to the issue.