THIRTY-SIX years. That’s how long some 1,000 farmers from the towns of Coron and Busuanga in Palawan have been fighting for their right to own the land they’re tilling for who knows how long.
By some twist of fate, the long wait comes to an end. Oops, not so fast! Farmers didn’t win the legal tussle – and on the contrary, they won’t get what they’ve been wishing for.
Not even Republic Act 6657 (otherwise known as the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Law) could force the family laying claim over the Yulo King Ranch to give up an area that is almost the size of Metro Manila.
According to insiders, the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) has rejected plans to surrender anything that is more than 2,000 hectares of land which forms part of the Yulo King Ranch, named after Marcos Sr. crony Luis Yulo.
Interestingly, the 2,000 hectares that the DENR referred to, has already been awarded in 2009 to New San Jose Builders Inc., the company that was established and owned by no less than Jerry Acuzar, the same person President Marcos appointed as a cabinet secretary.
What many thought would somehow benefit the Palawan farmers is not the case. The supposed turn over of the 2,000 hectares of land won’t benefit farmers. And if there’s somebody jumping in jubilation over the DENR’s position, that would perhaps be Mr. Acuzar, who by the way is the Secretary of the Department of Human Settlements and Urban Development (DHSUD).
To fully understand the complexity of this issue, let’s do a rewind. In 1975, then President Ferdinand Marcos Sr. issued Proclamation No. 1387 declaring YKR a pasture reserve.
Following the fall of the Marcos regime in 1986, YKR was among the properties sequestered by the Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG) on allegations that they formed part of the Marcos’ ill-gotten wealth.
The administration of YKR was then transferred to the Bureau of Animal Industry (BAI), which converted the property to the Busuanga Breeding and Experimental Stations.
In March 2010, the Supreme Court ordered the government to lift the sequestration of YKR, citing mismanagement of the property which had 75,477 cattle and 115 horses during the takeover. By 2005, there were only 2,565 cattle and 76 horses left on the ranch.
Two months before she stepped down, then President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo issued Presidential Proclamation 2057, authorizing Philippine Forest Corp. (Philforest) to administer the development of idle lands covered by the pasture reserve indicated in Marcos’ Proclamation No. 1387.
Under Arroyo’s proclamation, the PCGG, BAI and other government agencies were directed to cease, desist and refrain from introducing further activities in the area, and ordered to turn over assets, rights and other interests over the property to Philforest.
In April 2013, famous whistleblower Jun Lozada in his capacity as Philforest president then, made a sweeping allegation that Arroyo’s midnight proclamation benefited the real estate company owned by the brother-in-law of then Executive Secretary Paquito Ochoa Jr.
Lozada even showed the 2009 contract between Philforest and Acuzar’s New San Jose Builders Inc. The deal awarded the company 2,000 hectares of land in Busuanga, Palawan, under the Busuanga Economic Productivity out of the Idle Land Agreements.
As a matter of damage control, the government at that time canceled all contracts only to find out later that all those put on hold (including that of the NSJBI) were reconsidered when the issue simmered down.
#Promdiaries #FernanAngeles #CARP #Palawan #YuloKingRanch #DENR #LuisYulo #Marcos #OpinYonColumn #OpinYon #WeTakeAStand