As climate change accelerates and the population of farmers further ages, agricultural land is becoming increasingly vital to ensuring food security. We assert that this land is best cared for by those who till it, by the farmers themselves who cultivate, plow, and harvest the crops that fill the nation’s plate. 

Based on data by the Department of Agriculture (DAR), a whopping 97,592.5 hectares of agricultural land have been converted from 1998 to 2016. Combined, this is the size of both Metro Manila and Cebu City. However, according to the National Irrigation Authority (NIA)’s 2017 data, an approximate of 165,000 hectares of irrigated prime agricultural lands are converted annually to industrial and residential use. The continued and rampant conversion poses a threat to the country’s food supply, the sustainability of which is further diminished as the effects of the climate crisis are increasingly felt. Behind these numbers are entire farming communities whose right to land is violated as land conversion causes displacement and loss of livelihood. 

The farmers of Hacienda Vicenta in Barangay Cabacungan in La Castellana, Negros Occidental, who are qualified Agrarian Reform Beneficiaries (ARBs), have placed their faith in what should have been a just and meaningful implementation of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP). In 2012, a Notice of Coverage was issued by the Department of Agrarian Reform, which places the land under the program for redistribution and acknowledges 30 farm workers of Hacienda Vicenta as its true tillers. Their hopes of finally escaping landlessness increased in 2018, when the ownership of the land was transferred to the state under an “RP title” – one of the last milestones before redistribution. At this time, they were told that they needed only to await a Certificate of Land Ownership Award (CLOA) in order for each of them to receive a hectare. 

To farmers, land is not merely a property to possess, but a means of breaking cycles of poverty, debt traps, and hunger. More than a decade later, three of the initial thirty have already passed away. They lived and died landless. 

Under Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Law and its 2009 extension law, irrigable and irrigated land cannot be converted by any means. Hacienda Vicenta  is one such example of clearly and indisputably irrigated land. Yet the DAR, despite its mandate to facilitate CARP,  approved the land use conversion of Hacienda Vicenta from agricultural to industrial. In spite of the clarity in which the law states its nonnegotiables on irrigated agricultural land, repeated attempts were made to block the land redistribution of Hacienda Vicenta through applications for land use conversion. In 2018, then DAR secretary John Castriciones rejected the application in a move that affirmed both the invaluable worth of agricultural land and the farmers’ rights. In his ruling, he cited the video footage of water running through canals in the hacienda and the credibility of the onsite inspection and investigation report. However, the landowner’s application was granted by DAR in August 2020 under different leadership, blatantly ignoring the clarity of the evidence presented. This led to the cancellation of the RP title. The case has been pending at the Office of the President since 2021, from whom the farmers seek intervention for the wrongful conversion ruling. 

In 2022, the farmers were able to secure a certificate from the National Irrigation Authority proving the land’s coverage under a functional irrigation system. In the face of solid proof, their pleas remain unanswered. Should DAR’s decision to convert the Hacienda Vicenta be implemented, the probability of the qualified ARBs and their families escaping poverty will shift from slim to none. 

We are writing to appeal to President Bongbong Marcos to: 

1. Expedite the Hacienda Vicenta farmers’ case pending at the Office of the President in line with CARP
2. Reverse DAR’s land use conversion ruling and uphold the laws that protect irrigated agricultural land 

The qualified ARBs of Hacienda Vicenta are not just farmers, but are also parents, siblings, and loved ones. Their plight is shared by those who depend on them for economic survival and support, a hope that they place in the land they have tilled and are rightfully entitled to. Beyond the legal complexities of the case, our appeal is also ethical and moral in nature. The farmers of Hacienda Vicenta, along with their families and their communities, have suffered extreme deprivation and violence under the thumb of delayed justice. 

The president has spoken at length on CARP and has expressed a commitment to a sustainable agricultural industry in his State of the Nation Address: “Pinangako ko sa ating mga kababayan na itutuloy ang (I promised our countrymen that we will continue the) Agrarian Reform Program. I'm here today to build on that promise because our beneficiaries deserve nothing less. Ituloy natin ang repormang agraryo (Let us continue the agrarian reform).” 

We simply implore the president to make good on what we hope is a sincere, genuine promise. As PBBM himself said, our beneficiaries deserve nothing less. We call on PBBM to protect agricultural and irrigated lands, with the understanding that it is essential to the lives, identities, and livelihoods of entire farming communities.