The newly elected University Student Council conducted its first informal meeting last March 28, Friday at the USC office.
It started at 5:30pm and had the following agenda:
1. Attendance and Introduction
2. Sem Planning
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By TJ Burgonio, Michael Lim Ubac
Philippine Daily Inquirer
MANILA, Philippines—Young Higaonon farmer leader Napoleon Merida Jr.
has been having recurring dreams of planting crops in the verdant fields
of Sumilao, Bukidnon, since December.
Now, 24-year-old Merida and the rest of the 166 Higaonon farmers can
start tilling more than a third of the 144-hectare ancestral land that
they had been struggling to reclaim for more than 10 years.
"After the celebration, I can start planting palay and corn,"
Merida, president of the San Vicente Landless Farmers' Association
composed of second-generation Higaonon farmers, told the Inquirer
yesterday.
Today, the farmers will be flown home to Mindanao on an Air Force C-130
plane for a thanksgiving Mass to be celebrated by Malaybalay Bishop
Honesto Pacana and Cagayan de Oro Archbishop Antonio Ledesma.
In a compromise settlement principally brokered by Manila Archbishop
Cardinal Gaudencio Rosales, the property owner San Miguel Foods Inc.
(SMFI) agreed to donate 50 hectares in the original site to the farmers,
and acquire the remaining 94 ha elsewhere.
`Everyone won'
A joint statement by the two parties released by Malacañang said:
"All protagonists have won. SMC will be able to continue with [its]
project and has also clearly demonstrated that it is a corporation with
social responsibility.
"The farmers will get the land they have sacrificed and worked for
through many years with a promise of a better life for their
families."
According to the statement, the government has "demonstrated its
commitment to land reform and social justice, and that it is a
government that cares for the poor and is committed to fighting
poverty."
It said the Church, led by Cardinal Rosales, also "played its role
as a Church of the poor and peacemaker on earth."
"Much can be done if we work together," it added.
Signing rites
The contending parties formally signed a memorandum of agreement (MOA)
spelling out the terms of the settlement at the chapel of the San Carlos
Seminary in Guadalupe, Makati City, with Rosales and Auxiliary Bishop
Broderick Pabillo among those serving as witnesses.
"Definitely, this is a big victory for the farmers," Rosales
said later in an interview.
The signing ceremony ended with cheers from the farmers, wearing white
T-shirts and white headbands, who had marched all the way from the
headquarters of Caritas Manila.
"Today, our exodus ends. Today, we finally become tillers of the
land we have owned since the beginning," said 21-year-old Elgine
Merida, reading from the farmers' prepared manifesto.
Even San Miguel Corp. (SMC) president Ramon Ang, who had broached the
idea of the 50-ha donation to the farmers, heaved a sigh of relief.
"I'm happy because this had a happy ending," Ang said.
SMC, Southeast Asia's largest food and beverage firm, is the parent
company of SMFI.
Backdoor negotiations
The MOA ended three months of "backdoor negotiations" mediated
by Rosales between the farmers and SMFI executives.
The basic agreement was sealed as early as March 3, the two camps said
in a statement. The MOA was finalized only on Friday night, according to
Napoleon Merida.
The signatories were Ang and SMFI president Francisco Alejo, Napoleon
and Samuel Merida, Larry Carejo and Mercy Serona from the farmers'
side, Antonio Medina of the Norberto Quisumbing Management Development
Corp. (NQMDC), and Agrarian Reform Secretary Nasser Pangandaman and
Philippine Information Agency Secretary Conrado Limcaoco in behalf of
the President.
The others who signed as witnesses were Christian Monsod, a consultant
of the farmers, their legal counsel Arlene Bag-ao, and SMFI lawyer
Wilfredo Peñaflor.
According to the joint statement on the MOA read to the media:
SMC is to release 50 ha in the original site to qualified farmers
"by deed of donation" and acquire 94 ha in adjacent lands to
complete the 144 ha claimed.
The rest of the disputed land will remain with SMFI as it pursues its
plan to convert the property into an agro-industrial complex.
The farmers have identified their preferred parcels of land outside the
original site from a list provided by SMC, and have also organized a new
cooperative, Panaghiusa sa mga Mag-uumang Nakigbisog alang sa Yuta sa
Sumilao (Panaw-Sumilao)
be named owner of the land.
Pangandaman, under orders from President Macapagal-Arroyo to expedite
the process of determining the qualified farmer-beneficiarie
conducted a technical survey delineating the 50 ha.
All pending cases on the land dispute are to be dropped.
Courtesy call
The farmers later called on Ms Arroyo in Malacañang to present her a
copy of the settlement agreement and thank her for her support.
They were accompanied by Limcaoco, Pangandaman, Ang and Fr. Anton
Pascual, the executive director of Caritas Manila.
Both Pangandaman and Ang declared the settlement agreement a
"win-win solution."
Emerging from the meeting with Ms Arroyo, Ang told reporters that SMC
had turned the title to the 50-ha property over to the farmers.
"Today, upon signing [of the agreement], they now own the land.
Tomorrow, when they return, they will step on land that belongs to
them," Ang said.
According to Pascual, the Sumilao land is "not only a pastoral but
also a personal [issue]" for Cardinal Rosales, who was assigned to
Bukidnon as a bishop 20 years ago and personally knows the farmers.
Pascual thanked Ms Arroyo for intervening in the land dispute, saying:
"Through her, the wheels of justice turned and she was able to help
the farmers."
`Triumph of persevering spirit'
Arlene Bag-ao described the agreement as "a triumph of the
farmers' persevering spirit."
Ang, who gave much of the credit to Rosales for the forging of the
agreement, said he thought of donating the 50 ha the first time the
farmers protested SMFI's agro-industrial project.
"We were surprised when they started complaining. We thought we had
ironed out everything with them. During the public hearing most of them
signed the endorsement for us to put up the factory," he told
reporters.
The DAR originally awarded the land to the farmers in 1995 through the
Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program. But in 1996, on appeal by
landowner Norberto Quisumbing through the NQMDC, then Executive
Secretary Ruben Torres Malacañang reversed this and approved the
land's conversion from agricultural to agro-industrial.
In February 2002, the NQMDC sold the 144-ha property to SMFI.
In November 2004, the farmers petitioned for the cancelation of the
conversion order, charging that NQMDC had violated the terms by not
implementing the five-year development plan that it had proposed to
undertake on the land.
In October 2007, the farmers walked from Bukidnon to Manila to take
their case to Malacañang.
"We would have wanted that they give us the whole 144 hectares so we
won't be far apart. But we're happy as it is," Napoleon
Merida said Saturday.
Said Marlon Manuel, a lawyer for the farmers: "A lot has happened,
and we believe that this is the best long-term settlement."
Voluntary offer to sell
Manuel said the 50 ha would be opened for cultivation to all qualified
farmers, including those who did not go through the initial process of
identification.
The 94 ha, on the other hand, will be put under the CARP's Voluntary
Offer to Sell scheme, and will be acquired by the DAR from SMC on the
farmers' behalf, he said, adding that it would be up to the DAR and
SMC to process the scheme.
Ang said SMC had acquired the 94 ha, which could be occupied and tilled
in a month's time.
"We've made the advance payment. But the amount is not
important. What's important is that the farmers are happy," he
told reporters.
He said the land could be paid for "over a period of 30 years."
Ang said the MOA signing could be just the start of a partnership with
the farmers.
He said SMFI would provide new means of livelihood, and build
infrastructure such as schools, markets and hospitals once its
agro-industrial complex became operational.
SMC offers help
"Despite the misunderstanding, and the bad publicity, we will
continue the project, and we will support everything that you need.
Whatever you need, we will help you," Ang told the farmers.
He said SMFI had decided to invest on farm land in Sumilao with the
intention of making good business and helping the farmers.
He stressed that when the company bought the land, it was unaware of any
land dispute between the former landowner and the farmers.
"We had no bad intentions when we went to Sumilao. We never intended
to hurt the rich, much less the poor," Ang said.
Rosales' tribute
During the signing ceremony, Rosales paid tribute to Ang for his
sincerity and to the farmers who, he said, by their "faith in God,
goodwill and trust [in other people]," helped seal the agreement.
"God gave us light and inspiration so that any problem here on earth
will have a solution. This is the solution offered by God. Thanks to
God," the cardinal said. With a report from Jerome Aning
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