In 2012, the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) declared about 30 farm workers of Hacienda Vicenta as qualified beneficiaries of land distribution under the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP), a social justice government program that modernizes the country’s feudal structure of agriculture by granting landless farmers and farm workers ownership of agricultural lands.
A notice of coverage was issued to the farm workers – those who plowed the fields, planted and fertilized sugarcane and rice, and harvested the crops. Each one was entitled to almost one hectare of land.
Three years later, unknown to the CARP beneficiaries, the landowner filed an application for land use conversion.
“Nagkabanggaan daw ang dalawang kaso,” said Eden Entroduction, chairperson of the Hacienda Vicenta Farm Workers Association (HVFWA)
In 2018, then DAR Secretary John Castriciones rejected the application for land use conversion.
Based on Castriciones’ decision, which ordered the landholding to be placed under CARP coverage, the government acquired more than half of the Hacienda Vicenta property despite the lawndowner’s opposition.
It was converted to an “RP title,” one of the final steps before a CLOA is issued to the qualified farm worker-beneficiaries.
But a DAR committee that Castriciones himself deputized eventually reversed his decision. On August 5, 2020, DAR’s Land Use Cases Committee (LUCC) granted the motion for reconsideration filed by the landowner. The application for land use conversion was granted and the RP title was ordered canceled.
The CARP beneficiaries filed an appeal before the Office of the President. The review is pending. — PCIJ.org
