BMFI

Jan. 9 update:
Wary of government inaction, Task Force Sumilao prepares to launch Simultaneous Actions

The Sumilao farmers, who have been holding a camp out at the DAR Regional Office in Cagayan de Oro since January 3, 2008, have grown wary of the lack of action from the Department of Agrarian Reform and the Office of the President.

The Sumilao farmers have been asking the DAR and the Office of the President to proceed with the implementation of the Order executed by the Office of the President revoking the Conversion Order of the 144-hectare property in Sumilao, Bukidnon which is being developed by San Miguel Foods, Inc. into a hog farm. The farmers have been asking the government to immediately issue a cease and desist order to stop further construction by SMFI and to serve SMFI with a Notice of Coverage to begin the process of putting the land under agrarian reform as promised by President Arroyo.

According to Atty. Arlene Bag-ao, legal counsel of the Sumilao farmers, the farmers are losing faith in the sincerity of the public pronouncements of the Office of the President that the government is intent on distributing the 144-hectare property to the Sumilao farmers under the government's agrarian reform program. She said that the DAR is acting more like guardian of the interests of San Miguel rather than the chief implementor of agrarian reform.

"We have been wondering why the DAR has been waiting for SMFI to make its move while it should have already issued a Notice of Coverage to begin the process of distribution. They seem to have fallen into a bureaucratic stupor by refusing to immediately put the land under agrarian reform after the December 18 order declared the land as agricultural" Bag-ao said. She said that while the DAR refused to move, SMFI has been continuing its illegal construction in the property which means that the government is losing land everyday.

Bro. Xavier Alpasa, SJ, of the Simbahang Lingkod ng Bayan, acting secretariat o the Task Force Sumilao created by Cardinal Gaudencio Rosales, said that they are alarmed by the government’s inaction even after SMFI published a paid advertisement in major newspapers signifying, among others, its intent to make operational its hog farm beginning January 2008.

"The continued construction in the Sumilao property and the SMFI paid ad were blatant affronts to the order of the Office of the President. SMFI's action is tantamount to saying that it is defiant of the President's order and we hear nothing from the Department of Agrarian Reform and the Office of the President," Alpasa said. Alpasa said that these apprehensions have already been conveyed to both President Gloria Macapagal- Arroyo and DAR Sec. Nasser Pangandaman in a letter by Manila Auxiliary Bishop Broderick Pabillo. Bishop Pabillo, who is also the chairman of the Episcopal Commission on Social Action of the CBCP, was designated by Cardinal Rosales as head of the Church Task Force on Sumilao.

Bro. Xavier said that the Church Task Force on Sumilao met last January 7 to discuss the development in the case. He said that the farmers, through their representative Bajekjek Merida, have aired their apprehensions to the Church Task Force and relayed their plans to intensify their campaign. In response, Bishop Pabillo is going to Cagayan de Oro tomorrow to confer with Bukidnon Bishop Honesto Pacana and Cagayan de Oro Archbishop Antonio Ledesma on the Church's response to the current status of the case.

Bishop Pabillo is also scheduled to celebrate Mass with the picketing Sumilao farmers in Cagayan de Oro City. He will also visit San Vicente, Sumilao where he will meet with the farmers to discuss the possible support of the Church to the plans of farmers for simultaneous actions in Cagayan de Oro and Manila. The Sumilao farmers are planning to send a delegation back to Manila to push DAR and the Office of the President for immediate action to implement the December 18 OP order.