NEWS / A11 DAR CANCELS LUISITA DEALS
CITY OF SAN FERNANDO— Agrarian Reform Secretary Rafael Mariano on Wednesday nullified the sale or lease of agrarian lands awarded by the government in Hacienda Luisita.
Mariano cited the 10-year ban that stopped holders of certificates of land ownership award (Cloa) from selling and leasing agrarian lands distributed through the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP).
His order also affected all joint venture arrangements involving Cloa lots.
He acted on the results of a monthlong Cloa validation which concluded that 4,000 of 5,212 farmer-beneficiaries had sold, leased or bound their land in joint agreements that defied the ban. The beneficiaries of 6,884 lots total 6,212 farmers.
But when asked if the Cloa holders were also liable for the sale, Mariano said he directed the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) to first determine why Cloa holders acted this way.
He said DAR would have to decide if the sale, lease or joint venture contracts “were justifiable or forced by circumstances [arising from] lack of government support coupled with landowner’s resistance and maneuverings.”
Mariano described the cancellation of contracts as “mapagpasyang hakbang (decisive action)” in defense of the beneficiaries.
But entrepreneurs who leased Cloa lots questioned Mariano’s decision, saying it went against a constitutional provision that guarantees the nonimpairment of obligations of contracts.
Tarlac Rep. Noel Villanueva, who spoke on behalf of the leaseholders, said: “Secretary Mariano is an alter ego of President Duterte so the secretary’s move is an executive action. Aside from the constitutional question, lease holders want to clarify who will benefit from the crops. Is there potential unjust enrichment here?”
The agrarian lands in the sugar estate formerly owned by the clan of former Presidents Corazon Aquino and Benigno Aquino III were distributed in 2013 when the Supreme Court canceled the stocks sharing scheme began in 1989 and ordered the lands to be handed out to farmers in 2012.
The stock option scheme is allowed by CARP, and the stock shares benefiting 6,212 farm workers were the equivalent of 4,915 hectares. By 2014, each of the farmers received Cloa for 6,600 square meters of land when DAR fulfilled the Supreme Court order.
Mariano also revoked the conversion order which allowed 500 ha of Luisita land to be bought by the Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. (RCBC).
The Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas, which Mariano used to chair, began occupying and cultivating the RCBC lot on Monday.
Mariano warned that he would “throw the full force of the law” against those that would defy his order.
“The practice of ‘aryendo’ (renting sugar cane land) is illegal and a willful and deliberate obstruction in the delivery of the agrarian reform program,” he said, adding that DAR would help those who were forced to lease or sell their lots. Philippine National Police Director General Ronald dela Rosa on Wednesday sought to allay concerns that Supt. Ma. Cristina Nobleza’s dalliance with an Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG) member had “compromised” the force.
Dela Rosa confirmed that Nobleza was chief of the Intelligence Operation Division of the PNP’s Directorate for Intelligence, but this was before 2013, when she met her alleged lover, ASG member Renierlo Dongon, who has been implicated in a previous bomb attack in Cagayan de Oro city that killed two.
Nobleza and Dongon were flown to Manila where they underwent interrogation at the PNP Custodial Center in Camp Crame. They were arrested in Bohol where they were said to be responding to wounded Abu Sayyaf militants cornered by government forces.
Nobleza’s home in Malaybalay, Bukidnon, was also raided on Monday night and police seized bomb components and assorted “subversive documents pertaining to terrorist activities.”
Also found there was an M16 rifle, bandolier, seven magazines and 218 cartridges for M16 rifle, .45-cal. pistol, yellow timer for an improvised explosive device, other bomb components, one set of soldering iron, 66 nonelectric blasting caps and battery.
“Don’t be afraid that the PNP is compromised because ( Nobleza) was (allegedly) recruited by the Abu Sayyaf. Those are inaccurate,” Dela Rosa said. “Yes, it is true that she was assigned to the Directorate for Intelligence but that was prior to her involvement with Dongon.”
Dela Rosa said Nobleza and Dongon’s relationship blossomed after he was arrested in 2013 and the Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Commission (PAOCC) used Nobleza to interrogate him.
Raid
The Northern Mindanao Police Office said the raid on Nobleza’s home was backed by a search warrant issued by Judge Maria Theresa Aban-Camannong of Regional Trial Court Branch 9 in Malaybalay City.
Two minors who were also found inside the police officer’s home were turned over to proper authorities.
In Davao City, Supt. Georgy Manuel, the chief of the Southern Mindanao Regional Crime Laboratory, said he and Nobleza had barely talked since the latter was assigned there in February.
“We were both busy with our tasks,” Manuel said. “Some of my men would also hear her use an unfamiliar dialect in phone conversations with unidentified callers.”
He said Nobleza was “build- ing a house because she stayed in hotels since her reassignment in Davao from Camp Crame.”
In Bicol, Nobleza’s former classmates and colleagues in Camarines Sur were shocked about her arrest.
“I could have never imagined her do what she did, become a traitor against the government,” a retired policewoman who did not want to be named said of Nobleza.
She said she knew Nobleza as an achiever when she was assigned at the Camarines Sur Provincial Police Office, where she had a good track record having had several overseas trainings.
According to Nobleza’s personal Facebook account, she also served as a United Nations peacekeeper for 14 months in Timor-Leste.