For the first time for more than a decade of struggle towards land ownership that these peasant farmers of BTL hosted the ever daring BAKTAS-BTL (MARCH-BTL), a movement identical to the Manilakbayan of Lumad minorities in Mindanao. Participated by more than a hundred families, on the 8th of October this year, it held a marching protest from their homeland in Musuan, Maramag, Bukidnon down to Cagayan de Oro City, targeting Manila as the destination.
BAKTAS-BTL aims at petitioning to the Department of Agrarian Reform – Presidential Agrarian Reform Council (DAR-PARC) to reconsider land acquisition over 517 hectares of land single-handed by CMU and asked for freedom from threat and intimidation by the landlord university and target the sincerity of the Duterte’s Administration in redistributing the public agricultural lands to qualified landless farmers, holding the Presidential E.O. No. 407 and 448 as the bases for legitimacy over land ownership.
They have long been fighting for their farmland against the State-owned Central Mindanao University (CMU), which share the same interest towards the contested land. These farmers claim legitimacy over land ownership as they are beneficiaries of Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR)’s Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP), which took effect in 1987. On the other camp, the university asserts the same concern since it has its own legal reasons to claim the land for educational purposes as also one of the mandates of the program.
The BTL is composed of three united organizations called BUFFALO, TAMARAW, and LIMUS located within the land covered by the state university. It was established in 1998. These three organizations shouted the same demand for acquiring land entitlement with their names in the papers and tilling the land without any threat from the university. It was formed as an initiative made by BUFFALO, the grand among the three groups, to make an alliance after the nullification of the CLOAs given previously to BUFFALO for the 400 hectares of land by the Supreme Court. The TAMARAW and LIMUS immediately accepted the offer for an alliance because they knew they would suffer the same rejection from the Supreme Court. The CLOAs’ nullification was caused by the university’s assertion that the land would be used for educational purposes since its core academic program is agriculture education.
Prior to the formation of BTL, it was BUFFALO who first asserted the demand for land acquisition. the Bukidnon United Free Farmers and Landless Organization (BUFFALO) appeared amidst the implementation of the CARP. It aimed to unite the farmers and petition to demand Certificate of Land Ownership Awards (CLOAs) as promised by CARP. They demanded land ownership of 1,200 hectares of the land for its 1, 200 members. In 1990, only 400 hectares of the land were granted to the organization by the Department of Agrarian Reform Adjudication Board (DARAB). As a result, organizations TAMARAW and LIMUS were formed in 1990 to claim the remaining 800 hectares unclaimed by BUFFALO. Their members were composed of farmers who did not acquire land ownership from the limited hectares granted by the program to BUFFALO. They were organized by BUFFALO so that all the farmers could gain land ownership. Those members of BUFFALO who did not receive share of the land were told to form the two organizations according to their demographic locations.
The Tried Agricultural Movers and Rural Active Workers (TAMARAW) and Landless Inhabitants of Musuan (LIMUS) were the continuation of what BUFFALO first started – to claim the 1, 200 hectares of land owned by CMU. After they were organized by BUFFALO, they had been mobilizing the members independently. They had their own set of officers and political bodies. While the BUFFALO farmers were enjoying their ‘temporary’ achievement of owning 400 hectares of land, these two groups fought for the 800 hectares of land (400 hectares each group). Right after knowing the issue faced by BUFFALO about the nullification of their CLOAs, many of their members lost hope. However, they eventually regained their confidence when BUFFALO offered an alliance, creating the BTL alliance group.
The Republic Act No. 6657 or commonly known as the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) was crafted by the 8th Philippine Congress in 1986 and was made into law as the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Law (CARL) in 1987 under Corazon Aquino’s Presidency. It was the tool of the government to heighten agricultural status in the country by redistributing its public, including private, agricultural lands to landless but qualified Filipino farmers. On June 14, 1990, Presidential Executive Order No. 407 was released to “accelerate the acquisition and distribution of agricultural lands, pasture lands, fishponds, agro-forestry lands, and other lands of public domain suitable for agriculture,” cited by Aquino. It was amended as Presidential Executive Order No. 448 on February 14, 1991 to strengthen its mandate in giving the lands to the landless farmers. These orders have been the bases of the BTL farmers in their struggle for land ownership,
Even before the CARP’s implementation, the farmers in the area had already been in trouble with their farming and residency within the university’s land boundary. In 1975, the university leased the land to Del Monte Philippine Packing Incorporated for the duration of 10 years. The grandparents of the farmers today used to be the workers of the corporation. CMU hired them. Problem arose when they did not receive payment from their labor after the contract between CMU and Del Monte Corporation ended in 1985. To cope up with the problem, the workers mobilized a movement called SARILING-SIKAP PROGRAM, targeting only the university to pay them. They rallied in front of the university. It was the earliest act of resistance ever recorded among the land settlers.
Such resistance paved way for the university to decide on renting its land to the workers and utilize the land as farmers. However, even before the harvest of their crops, the university released a Memorandum Order stating prohibition to renew their contract. The farmers believed that it was part of the plan to lease the land to some multinational corporations.
In 2002, the pressures thrown by the BTL against the university since 1998 for 4 years led the CMU to decide on leasing the land under the Lease Contract for 5 years (2002-2007). As an effect, the farmers did not experience any misconduct from the university within this term. Furthermore, the contract imposed the following rules to the farmers:
The farmers should remain in the area until there is a relocation site suited for the sustainability of the farmers.
The contract should be organizational, not individual
There should be third party government agencies to support the farmers.
The farmers should pay 4 thousand pesos per year for an irrigated land.
Upon the expiration of the contract in 2007:
There were relocation sites provided but not livable. There were no roads, no water supply, no electricity, and still forests.
Despite the complain about the problematic relocation areas, the university persisted on displacing the farmers from the area.
Miguel ‘Migz’ Zubiri, the former Congressman of their district offered cash option amounting 40, 000 pesos to each of the farmers who would not accept the relocation place.
Consistent harassments by the university’s security forces took place against the farmers.
The university has been consistent on insisting to the farmers that the land would be utilized for educational purposes and that they should be removed as fast as they could, but they reasoned out that the land was not really meant for educational purposes but rather for private institutions to occupy it.
The data shows different private, including State-backed corporations present within the university’s land area:
Sto. Rosario Farms (231.79 hectares as of 1991)
Ricardo Barrios’ Sugarcane Plantation (100 plus hectares)
Agri-Ventures, Inc. Stockage Area (30 hectares)
Philippine Rice Research Institute (60 hectares)
Philippine Carabao Center (60 hectares)
Corn Plantation (10 hectares)
Goat Farm (5 hectares)
Japanese Sawmill (2 hectares)
Mudpress Agriventure (7 hectares)
Zubiri’s Jathropa (10 hectares)
The farmers refused to leave the community, so the university pressured them by doing the following:
The university built a Task Force outpost inside the community.
There were 3 years left for them to occupy the land.
Each farmer should pay 1 thousand pesos every year for each hectare he/she is occupying.
The third party government institutions should then be the one to help the university make plans for the relocation areas of the farmers. The university would only assist them.
There would be scholarship grants for the children of the farmers. The parents who accepted this offer should leave the community immediately.
Again, the farmers refused all of them and defended the land by forming picket-lines in front of the university and rallied for one month starting on May 23, 2011. The only goal was to stay in the area and till the land without threats and intimidation from the university’s security forces. In line with the protest was the forming of the OPERATION TIKAD (OPTIKAD) – a collective action only aiming to continue tilling the land and escape from hunger. It caused the university to summon its security forces to have a gunfire towards the rallyists, leaving 6 wounded and 2 dead.
The harassment reached out in the national level and in the international. Several mass organizations in the country such as the Kilusan ng Mga Magsasaka sa Pilipinas (KMP), the Rural Missionaries of the Philippines (RMP), ANAKPAWIS, and BAYAN MUNA conducted a Fact-Finding Mission and provided relief goods to the victim farmers from June 23 to 24, 2011. International organization called the Asia Pacific Forum on Women, Law and Development also attended the mission.
After the 2011 dispersal, the farmers continued to work on the land. The university maintained its aggression against them. Harassments continued. To suppress the attacks, several farmers destroyed the on-going construction of the university’s Guard House in the middle of the farmland. 11 BTL officials and members of BTL were charged of Grave Threat and Grave Coercion cases. They were dismissed afterwards.
The farmers today suffer from poverty. To survive from day-to-day needs, they do jobs other than farming. They have become debt-ridden from renting farming tools and seedlings while they income less. The government, on the other hand, only provide little to no support to the farmers.
(First published for Rural Missionaries of the Philippines – Northern Mindanao Region in 2016)
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