SERIES OF LETTERS

As late as 2004, however, there was still no response from Mike Arroyo. This prompted another PARO, Felicidad Bañares, to return the farmers' claim folder to the municipal agrarian reform officer (MARO). 

Bañares said in a January 19, 2004 letter to MARO Jose Renato Defiño: "Series of communications were made to the landowner/representative for him to submit needed requirements, but no response had been received up to this writing." Without the landowner’s cooperation, the DAR could not process the claim.

Three more years passed before another PARO sent a letter regarding Hacienda Bacan to the First Gentleman. By then Depeñoso had replaced Bañares; in her August 2, 2007 letter, Depeñoso pointed out to the President’s husband that “(per) our findings, you bought the said landholding in the auction sale...." She also noted that that a final bill of sale was issued to the First Gentleman in 1996, which therefore indicated that he was the owner of Bacan.

	FIRST TIME. It was Irene Celes' first time to join a farmers' picket in Manila. "This is also the first time I landed in jail," says the 22-year-old farmhand of Hacienda Bacan in Negros Occidental. [photo by AR Sabangan]

The PARO then wrote, "Further, may we request from your good self to annotate documents of sale at the back of the title to facilitate immediate processing of your claim folder if ever you decide to sell voluntarily your property to the DAR."

MIKE DISOWNS INTEREST

Two months later, the First Gentleman finally replied, in the form of a Declaration of Trust and in which he stated, among other things, that "I have and claim no interest in the property whatsoever."

With the declaration in hand, the DAR stepped up its move to have Bacan distributed to the farmers by having Land Bank release the P42.31-million certificate of cash deposit in favor of Rivulet.

Then came the letter of ROD’s Gonzaga that essentially stopped the process in its tracks.

In a telephone interview last November 26, the PCIJ asked Gonzaga why he had refused to honor the certificate of cash deposit from Land Bank and why his office was refusing to cancel Rivulet's title.

He replied by saying that "Lately I got a threat from the corporation." But he declined to identify which entity he was referring to. He added, “Baka file-an pa ako ng case (A case might be filed against me). I have to play safe legally."

The Bacan farmers' struggle, however, might not end at the ROD. Last November 25, Rivulet Agro Industrial Corporation filed a petition before the Provincial Agrarian Reform Adjudicator in Negros Occidental that accused DAR Secretary Nasser Pangandaman, PARO Depeñoso, and Land Bank vice president Leticia Lourdes Camara of "unlawful confiscation" of the hacienda.

NO NOTICE FROM DAR

According to Rivulet, the DAR did not inform the firm about the supposed just compensation that it deposited in favor of the company worth P42.31 million.

"There was no notice served; no offer by the DAR to pay a specific value for the property; no chance for Rivulet to accept or reject the offer," the company said in the petition executed by lawyer Ruy Alberto Rondain, who is also counsel to the First Gentleman. “There was no hearing held to determine just compensation; no chance for Rivulet to prove its claims.”

Rivulet also assailed the DAR for proceeding with the acquisition of Bacan even though Rivulet last February 14 filed an application for conversion at the office of the MARO in Isabela. The company said the DAR had certified there was no pending application for conversion so that the department could justify proceeding with the questionable acquisition of the hacienda.

HE MISSED DEADLINE

TFM's Angeles, however, says that according to DAR rules, a landowner is given only up to 30 days to file his or her petition or application for conversion from the time the DAR issued a notice that the land is covered by CARP.

"That's way beyond deadline,” the peasant leader says of Rivulet’s latest move. “The notice of coverage was issued in 2001. But the application for conversion was only made after seven years."

In the meantime, the Bacan farmers are racing feverishly against time. Right after being freed from jail last Friday, the farmers went straight to the DAR central office in Quezon City to launch another campaign. They have decided to go on a hunger strike.

Farmer Celis says that prior to the picket at the LRA, they had mounted several other campaigns in a bid to hasten the processing of their claims on Hacienda Bacan.

"We camped out at the DAR central for two months,” he says. “We also picketed in front of Malacañang half-naked to get the attention of the President. We also had a series of pickets in Negros.”

"Ginawa na namin lahat para matupad na ni Presidente ang pangako niya (We did everything for President Arroyo to fulfill her promise),” says Celis. “Ano pang gusto niyang gawin namin? Sana hindi kamatayan ang magpapakilos sa kanya para matupad ang pangarap namin (What else does she want us to do? I hope it's not death that could finally make her act to make our dream come true)."