Air Force gives
farmers
a free ride home
THE 167 Sumilao farmers were given a free
ride home Sunday morning by the Philippine Air Force who flew
them from Villamor Air Base to Bukidnon via Cagayan de Oro
City on a C-130 Hercules and an F-27 Fokker plane.
The farmers and San Miguel Foods Inc. (SMFI)
had just ended a 10-year legal battle over 144 hectares of land
in Sumilao, Bukidnon involving a 1,700-kilometer trek by the
farmers from Bukidnon to Malacañang Palace, and days of camping
at the Department of Agrarian Reform office in Quezon City to
publicize their cause.
Hilda San-ahan, one of the farmers, expressed
gratitude that she can now rest her thickly calloused feet after
walking twice from Sumilao to Manila and back again. "Thank God,
for having mercy on us," she said in Filipino. Upon arriving
home, she said they will perform a ritual to celebrate their
triumph, "pero konti lang ang handa, mahirap kami (we'll have
only a little feast, because we're poor)."
San-ahan said that they will plant corn and
rice on their reclaimed land. "Our parents were also rice and
corn farmers like me, although four of my six children are now
married and I am living with the unmarried ones," she said in
Filipino.
PAF chief Lt. Gen. Pedrito Cadungog was on
hand to send off the farmers at 6:30 a.m. He told them his
parents were homesteaders from Luzon who tried their luck in
Mindanao, then called the Promised Land.
"The Air Force has provided your group with
two airplanes so that you would arrive faster and without much
expense after what you have undergone," he told the farmers,
adding that the C-130 may not be as comfortable as a commercial
airplane but is as fast and as safe.
Rene Peñas, 51, the group's spokesman said
they are happy that the farmers got part of what they have long
fought for, 50 hectares out of the 144 hectares that they said
belongs to their Higaanon ancestors.
"Masaya na kami dahil nagkaroon ng win-win
solution," he said.
After much legal wrangling, SMFI signed an agreement with
farmer groups Pamadayonong Panagiusa sa Lumad alang sa Damlag (Mapalad);
San Vicente Landless Farmers Association (Salfa) and Panaghiusa
sa mga Maguumang Nakibisog alang sa Yuta sa Sumilao (Panakaw-Sumilao)
where the farmers will receive 50 hectares through a deed of
donation, while the balance of 94 hectares will be sourced from
other nearby properties and distributed to the farmers through a
Voluntary Offer to Sale under the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform
Program. - Jay Chua
