AROUND 500 farmers from municipality of Arakan, North Cotabato, gathered Friday, January 13, in front of the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR)-Davao office to witness the inter-agency dialogue with DAR officials and Cotabato Foundation College of Science and Technology (CFCST) in line with their plea for the implementation of Executive Order 407 and 506, which will allow them to claim 4,791 hectares unused by the school administration.
Kilusang Magbubukid Pilipinas spokesperson Pedro Arnado, in an interview with VoxPop Davao Friday, said Executive Order 407 accelerates “the acquisition and distribution of agricultural lands, pasture lands, fishponds, agro-forestry lands and other lands of the public domain suitable for agriculture and Executive Order 506 gives legitimacy for farmers to own the land.”
“Kini naga-ingon na ang tanang yuta ng publiko nga dili develop i-transfer sa DAR, ug iapud-apud kini sa mga qualified sa Carp (This order states that all the undeveloped public lands will be transferred to DAR and will be distributed to the qualified Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program beneficiaries),” Arnado said.
Arnado said the Board of Regent of University of Southern Mindanao (USM) and the Board of Trustees of the CFCST were present.
DAR Undersecretary Sylvia Mallari, and DAR Undersecretary for Operations Marcos Risonar Jr. were also present in Friday’s event.
Among the group of 500 farmers who stayed in the area since morning, Babes Marcelino, council member of the Malibawan, Ilustre, Nahi, Makalagot and Duruluman, said they camped outside DAR office for their plea to distribute the land which they want to own for 50 years.
“(Year) 1956 hangtod karon sobra 50 years ang pangandoy sa mga mag-uumang ama ang kon na jud nila ang tinuod na reporma nga sila na jud ang mag benepisyo sa maong yuta (From 1956 until now it is a dream of the farmers to claim their land and that they will achieve the true land reform in which they themselves would be the beneficiaries of their own land),” Marcelino said.
She also added that the farmers also tilled the land since 1950s and it now bears different products.
Arnado added there are five barangays which are within the USM-CFCST reservation.
It consists of 5,091 hectare and 300 of it was already cultivated and developed by CFCST, and this is why they only claim around 4,702 hectares.
Arnado said the inter-agency meeting was the response of DAR for their petition last December 5, 2016.
It was DAR Central Office that chose DAR-Davao Region to be the venue. (KVC)