BEHIND the mesmerizing beauty of Palawan is a story about what appears to be the biggest agrarian anomaly involving two patriarchs – the late former strongman Ferdinand Marcos Sr. and his crony Luis Yulo.
A little less than 35 years later, the state-sponsored anomaly lives on as the generation next to Marcos and Yulo were able to regain power and prevent an honest-to-goodness implementation of Republic Act 6657 (Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Law), which mandates the distribution of land to the farmers.
Under the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP), the government – through the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) should redistribute private and public agricultural lands to help the beneficiaries survive as small independent farmers, regardless of the “tenurial” arrangement.
According to the farmers from the towns of Coron and Busuanga, a clan’s greed stood as a stumbling block preventing CARP implementation in Palawan.
Orly Marcellana, spokesperson of the Katipunan ng mga Samahang Magbubukid sa Timog Katagalugan (KASAMA-TK) particularly hinted as the culprit behind the foiled implementation of the agrarian reform law in Palawan – particularly in the towns of Coron and Busuanga where the Yulo King Ranch occupies 40,000 hectares of agricultural land.
Citing the need for food security, the late strongman’s son, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. ordered Agrarian Reform Secretary Conrado Estrella III, to expedite the distribution of land to deserving beneficiaries “while collaborating with all the agencies of government to support our beneficiaries in anything that they might need.”
Interestingly, one of the agencies that the President instructed to collaborate is headed by no less than the heir of the late Marcos crony Luis Yulo.
More than being an heir, Environment Secretary Ma. Antonia Yulo-Loyzaga is the designated executor of the Yulo King Ranch which spans the towns of Coron and Busuanga. Of the 40,000-hectares, 12,817 hectares are classified as alienable and disposable where 10,376 hectares are public land and the remaining 2,441 hectares are private and titled.
The question now is, will the President pursue the implementation of land distribution to farmers in Palawan? Oh yes, he should by all means – even if it takes to step on Sec. Yulo-Loyzaga, who doesn’t seem keen on stepping down from her post despite an obvious conflict of interest.
According to ACT partylist Rep. France Castro, a resolution seeking congressional probe on what she aptly described as an obvious conflict of interest hounding Sec. Yulo-Loyzaga, in her capacity as head of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources and executor of the Yulo King Ranch.
Chances of seeing a congressional probe seemed too slim since the lower chamber is dominated by allies of the scions behind the largest agrarian anomaly in the Philippines.
Had it been a land grabbing case involving somebody else, members of the Congress would have immediately called for an “investigation in aid of legislation” over the controversies hounding the DENR chief.
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