Philippines: Violation of the right to food of tenant farmers

His Excellency
Benigno Simeon C. Aquino
President of the Republic of the Philippines
Malacañang Palace JP Laurel St.,
San Miguel Manila NCR 1005, Philippines

Re: Violation of the right to rood of the tenant farmers in Hacienda Matias, San Francisco, Quezon Province

April 2, 2012

Your Excellency:

FIAN International is an international human rights organization – in consultative status with the United Nations Economic and Social Council – working for the promotion of the right to food world-wide. Recently, we received alarming information about the situation of 121 tenant farmers’ families who are living in Hacienda Matias, a 1716 hectare landholding located in the town of San Francisco, Quezon Province. According to the information FIAN received, 121 tenant farmers’ families (a total of 531 persons), who have petitioned for their land to be covered by the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) in 2004, are still waiting for land distribution.

Although the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) issued a Notice of Coverage to the landlord and undertook an initial survey as a response to the 2004 petition, according to the testimonies of the tenant families, they were subjected, soon after the petition, to various forms of harassment – forcible eviction, accusation of criminal charges and confiscation of harvests- allegedly, as attempts to avoid the directive. Seventy-six individuals were accused of various criminal charges and some were jailed, while more than a dozen individuals were physically attacked.

By 2005, the main hacienda was fenced, thereby making ingress and egress for the tenant farmers’ families difficult. Children had to be literally lifted over the top of the fence to go to school. Amidst the continuing physical harassment and the impunity of the landlord’s armed men, the struggle for land reform became almost paralyzed by 2008, aided in part by the uncertainly of the state-sponsored agrarian reform program caused by the expiration of the CARP.

With the extension of the agrarian reform program until 2014, new mobilizations were initiated to push for the coverage of the land in question. Sustained dialogues were initiated by the petitioners for land reform continuity at the municipal, provincial and national levels of the DAR. In March 2010, the DAR Adjudication Board ordered the right to peaceful possession of nine of the evicted farmers. Several attempts to install them on the land, however, failed due to landowner resistance. In December 2010, the survey of the main hacienda was initiated by the DAR.

Since then, five of the seven lots of the main hacienda comprising the 1,716 hectares have been surveyed, and three of the surveyed lots, with a total area of 639 hectares, have been paid by the Land Bank of the Philippines, as a precondition for the transfer of the titles to the Republic of the Philippines. However, notwithstanding such efforts, the recent regulation – DAR Administrative Order (A.O. 7 Series of 2011) – restrains the DAR from taking possession of the land unless the protest or exemption application has become final and executory.

In 2004, the landowner of Hacienda Matias has protested against the survey of the property, a case which was denied by the Office of the President in 2007. Again in 2010, the landowner filed a Petition for Exclusion, which is currently pending at the Office of the DAR Secretary. In the face of the A.O. 7 Series of 2011, the DAR is inhibited to proceed with the redistribution of the land to the tenant farmers, or at the very least, for a take-over of the property.

Since 2010, in addition to the 24 tenants who were evicted in 2005, 97 more tenants have been evicted after they allowed the DAR to survey the property pursuant to the agrarian reform implementation. Displaced farmers who live near the sea now rely on fishing, while those living in the interior were forced to produce charcoal. Others collect a kind of wild grass that tenants claim is sold as ingredient of feed production. Today, the right to food of the tenant farmers’ families is severely threatened.

As a state party to the International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights, the Philippines is obliged under international law to respect, protect and fulfill the right to food of the tenant farmers in Hacienda Matias whose access to productive resources is severely denied. Secured access to land is essential for rural populations who have no alternative options for earning a living and to adequately feed themselves.

The delay of the implementation of the CARP, due to the negligence of the DAR in the past and the recent issuance of the A.O. 7 Series of 2011, proves the failure on the part of the State to abide with the obligation to respect and to fulfill the right to food. Furthermore, the violence that has come as a response to the community´s struggle for land and the consequent impunity of the private armed men hired by landlords elucidates the extent to which the State has failed to meet its obligation to protect the individuals from actions of third actors. As such, I would like to ask you, His Excellency, to:

1) request the DAR to fast track a decision on the petition for exclusion now pending before the Office of the Secretary of the DAR;

2) request the DAR to take over the 639-hectare portion of the land and allow farmers peaceful possession of the land since these have been paid for by the government pursuant to the CARP;

3) revoke or rescind A.O. 7 Series of 2011;

4) provide adequate protection to farmers who have petitioned for agrarian reform;

5) re-instate farmers with final and executory order for peaceful possession, and supervise the harvesting of the said farmers along with leaseholders.

Sincerely,

Dr. Flavio Valente
FIAN International
Secretary General

Cc. Mr. Virgilio de los Reyes/DAR Secretary; Mr. Joel M. Rocamora/Secretary of the National Anti-Poverty Commission; Ms. Loretta Ann P. Rosales/Chair of the Commission on Human Rights; QUARRDDS; RIGHTS