The Federation of Free Farmers (FFF) reminded government on Monday to apply the principles of agrarian reform and commit to their just distribution when disposing of government-held or owned lands for development by private sector parties.
The FFF issued the appeal amid plans by the Departments of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), the Department of National Defense (DND) and the Department of Justice (DOJ) to lease large tracts of land under their jurisdiction in favor of big corporations.
Leonardo Montemayor, FFF chairman, said such are contrary to the provisions of Executive Order 75 issued by then President Rodrigo Duterte in 2019.
The EO requires unclassified public land and government-owned land held by government instrumentalities suitable for agriculture but no longer actually, directly and exclusively used or necessary for the purpose for which they were reserved or acquired, to be turned over to the Department of Agrarian Reform for distribution to qualified beneficiaries.
Montemayor said the mandate to return such land to the DAR for eventual disposition include land the DENR has mobilized via public bidding around a million hectares of denuded forests for restoration by the private sector as a form of investment and in exchange for carbon credits.
The FFF also said there are also land in government reservations being tapped by agencies like the Philippine Army and the Bureau of Corrections (BuCor) under the Department of Justice in collaboration with the business sector for conversion into large-scale plantations and other projects.
Montemayor said the 46,000-hectare Kibaritan Military Reservation extending over several municipalities in Bukidnon and Lanao del Sur is one such land set for conversion into a hybrid banana plantation.
Montemayor said the indigenous population and local farmers are even now being forcibly driven away from the area.
He said the BuCor and the Philippine Export Zone Authority recently bared plans to develop 26,000 hectares of the 38,000-hectare Iwahig penal colony in Palawan as an economic zone.
