Batagueños Ask SC to Reverse CA Decision on CARP Land

Hundreds of farmers, residents and members of local government units (LGUs) in Nasugbu, Batangas have trooped to the Supreme Court (SC) to petition for the nullification of the Court of Appeals ruling granting the petition of Roxas & Co., Inc., in exempting its entire 2,930-ha. property – situated in Caylaway, Palico and Banilad villages – from coverage of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP). The SC is expected to decide on the matter within the first semester of the year.

BY MARICRISTH MAGALING
Contributed to Bulatlat

FOR SALE: Billboard advertising agricultural land converted into a subdivision in Nasugbu, Batangas PHOTO BY DABET CASTAÑEDA

Hundreds of farmers, residents and members of local government units (LGUs) in Nasugbu, Batangas have trooped to the Supreme Court (SC) to petition for the nullification of the Court of Appeals ruling granting the petition of Roxas & Co., Inc., in exempting its entire 2,930-ha. property – situated in Caylaway, Palico and Banilad villages – from coverage of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP). The SC is expected to decide on the matter within the first semester of the year.

Clarito Caisip, chairperson of the Alyansa 1520, an alliance of 23 organizations of Nasigbu residents expressed fears that an SC affirmation of the decision could trigger massive land grabbing and would affect not only the properties of Roxas & Co., Inc., but the entire Nasugbu town. "Ibig sabihin nito, hindi lamang kaming mga magsasaka ang apektado kundi ang lahat sa bayan ng Nasugbu" (This means that we farmers are not the only ones to be affected but everyone in Nasugbu), he said.

Alyansa 1520 further said that the CA decision declaring automatic reclassification of the entire Nasugbu town, penned by Justice Jose Sabio, Jr., grossly misapplied Presidential Proclamation 1520 in the petition of Roxas for CARP exemption. The said proclamation dated Nov. 28, 1975 by then President Ferdinand Marcos has declared only "certain areas in the sector comprising the municipalities of Maragondon and Ternate in Cavite Province and Nasugbu in Batangas" as eco-tourism development areas.

HARVEST TIME: Farm workers (right photo) harvest sugarcane in a plantation, with an irrigation (left photo) – built by no less than the National Irrigation Administration (NIA) – in Nasugbu, Batangas, which the government claims is “non-agricultural” land                                                           PHOTOS BY DABET CASTAÑEDA

Following the CA application of Presidential Proclamation 1520, the alliance feared that it will also amount to massive landgrabbing on a nationwide scale, for other places declared as tourist zones: Brgy. Patag in Silay City in Negros Occidental, the municipalities of Laurel, Balete, Agoncillo, San Nicolas and Talisay, and Limasawa Island in Southern Leyte, the municipalities of Boac, Buenavista and Torrijos in Marinduque, municipality of Peñablanca, and the provinces of Cagayan, Bataan, Ilocos Norte and others.

Memorandum Circular No. 07 of the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR), provides guidelines on the effect of declarations of general areas in the country as "tourist zones" to the coverage of lands devoted to or suitable for agriculture within the said areas under CARP.  It recognizes that "proclamations declaring general areas such as whole provinces, municipalities, barangays, islands or peninsulas as tourist zones that merely recognize  certain still unidentified areas with potential tourism value and recognize the potential value of identified spots located within the general area declared as tourist zones could not be regarded as effecting an automatic reclassification of the entirety of the land declared as tourist zones. "

The memorandum further said it would be "unreasonable" to see these kinds of proclamation as a reclassification for non-agricultural purposes of entire provinces, municipalities, barangays, islands or peninsulas as it amounts to an "automatic and sweeping exemption from CARP in the name of tourism development.This would also undermine the land use reclassification powers vested in local government units (LGUs) in conjunction with pertinent agencies of government."

Caisip maintained that the CA decision ignored the certifications issued by the Philippine Tourism Authority (PTA) and the Mayor's Office that they have yet to identify the specific geographical areas with tourism potential in Nasugbu. It likewise ignored the Nasugbu Sangguniang Bayan (People’s Council) Resolution attesting to the fact that no ordinance or comprehensive land use plan has converted Roxas properties or portions thereof to non-agricultural use.

 What has deeply alarmed the farmers and the LGU, Caisip said, is the fact that while the Supreme Court Second Division has given due course to the petition of aggrieved farmers in Nasugbu  and ordered the  consolidation of their petition with a similar petition filed by the Department of Agrarian Reform pending before  the Supreme Court Third Division, the Supreme Court Third Division ignored the order of consolidation and dismissed the petition in a one-sentence paragraph Minute Resolution, for supposed  failure to show reversible error committed by the appellate court. 

"Moreover, while the Supreme Court has yet to determine with finality whether or not the  entire property of Roxas in Nasugbu is exempt from CARP coverage, several petitions for cancellation of certificate for land ownership award (CLOAs) have already been filed by Roxas involving various portions of their property,” Caisip added. "In addition, several duplicitous petitions for CARP Exemption have also been filed with the DAR involving various portions of the Roxas property."

Alyansa 1520 also stated all these petitions were granted by the DAR through “midnight” decisions penned by former DAR Secretaries Hernani Braganza and Roberto Pagdanganan, which are now the subject of various cases pending with the SC in different Divisions, the Court of Appeals, the Provincial Adjudication Board and the DAR Secretary's Office.

Alyansa 1520 is fully supported by the local government unit (LGU), Sangguniang Bayan, Liga ng mga Barangay Captains (village captains’ league), Liga ng mga Homeowners Associations (league of homeowners associations), and Liga ng mga Barangay Agrarian Reform Committees (league of village agrarian reform committees). Bulatlat 

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