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- EDD K. USMAN | Twitter: @edd1819 | Instagram: @bluestar0910 | Facebook: SDN — SciTech and Digital News
(SDN) June 29, 2024 — Are there “3,000 Ilocano farmers” in an agricultural land of the Southern Philippines Development Authority (SPDA) in Lanao del Sur?
“That is a hoax,” SPDA Administrator/CEO Abdulghani “Gerry” Ajul Salapuddin says, denying a claim of a group of farmers he described as the LAPANTAR Group. “LAPANTAR” stands, apparently for “La Union, Pangasinan, Tarlac”.
The “agricultural land” in question is located in Barangay Lower Sumugut, of the Municipality of Manabilang, Lanao del Sur.
“There are no 3,000 Ilocano farmers in the SPDA agricultural land (in Barangay Sumugut). There are some few of them, but not even by the hundreds.
“Someone is manipulating them, who is trying to make a mountain out of a molehill. We, in SPDA, intend to relocate them but they do not even agree to be profiled, so as to know their origin, numbers and identities,” Salapuddin told SDN — SciTech & Digital News. He said a former colleague of him in the House of Representatives was probably behind the farmers.
Then President Rodrigo R. Duterte appointed Salapuddin to head SPDA. He was later re-appointed by President Ferdinand R. Marcos, Jr.
The top SPDA official asserted that the so-called 3,000 farmers are not even residents of Barangay Lower Sumugut, emphasizing that “the reason is clear.”
He was reacting to an article published in a national newspaper on June 24, 2024, about the “3,000 Ilocano farmers” seeking help from the government. The article quoted Efren Estoque, president of the Small Ilocano Farmers Association (SIFA), who brought up the subject matter at a media forum hosted on June 21 at Club Filipino in San Juan City, Metro Manila.
They are not residents of Barangay Sumugut, said Salapuddin, adding that many of the farmers are from Barangay Kili-Kili, Municipality of Wao, Lanao del Sur. Others are from the Province of Bukidnon. He described the farmers as “seasonal workers paid by financiers to harvest sugar cane in the area.”
Lawyer Mary Ann M. Arnado, a member of the Parliament (MP) of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM), got wind of the issue when SDN asked for a reaction in her capacity as the vice president for Settler Communities of the United Bangsamoro Justice Party (UBJP), the political arm of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF).
MNLF and MILF former combatants rightful claimants to SPDA land
“The Bangsamoro Parliament, through my office, will look into this problem. We can send a team to be able to assess the situation and ensure that the legal rights of our settler communities will be protected, and justice will be served to all residents and constituents of the autonomous region,” Arnado, stalwart of the Mindanao People’s Caucus (MPC), says.
The regional parliament solon raised the importance of fast-tracking the enactment of a bill on transitional justice still pending in the Philippine Congress “so we can address the underlying causes of land conflict in various parts of Mindanao and correct historical injustice committed against the Moro people as a result of colonialism.”
Lanao del Sur is one of the component provinces of the BARMM that covers Basilan, Maguindanao del Sur, Maguindanao del Norte, Sulu, and Tawi-Tawi, the cities of Cotabato, Marawi, Lamitan, and the Special Geographic Area (SGA) in North Cotabato.
Arnado emphasized that the BARMM under the current MILF leadership headed by Ahod Balawag “Al-Haj Murad” Ebrahim (the interim Bangsamoro chief minister), “is inclusive and it is there to protect and promote human rights for the Bangsamoro, including the settler communities.”
As a GOCC (government-owned or -controlled corporation), SPDA, Salapuddin explained, the agricultural land it is trying to develop pursuant to its Charter and mandates was proclaimed by then President Ferdinand E. Marcos, Sr. for Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) F1 Jamil “Commander Jungle Fox” Lukman when he made peace with the government.
He recalled the SPDA was mandated to administer, develop and operate the agricultural land. “If there are rightful claimants (over the agricultural land in Barangay Sumugut), they are the MNLF and MILF former combatants from the area.”
Salapuddin, a native of the island Province of Basilan, is no stranger to the Mindanao conflict that peaked in the 1970s. He was with the MNLF’s Bombardment Group that trained in a foreign country. When he returned, he fought in the internecine war that pitted Filipinos against Filipinos where at least 120,000 people — civilians, rebels, soldiers — were killed.
SPDA is authorize, under its Charter, to create economic zones and collect fees from it
Many MNLF leaders opted to return to the government fold, one of them Lukman of Lanao del Sur, during Marcos, Sr.’s offer of peace. He granted the MNLF returnees led by Top 90 Batch (the first foreign trained group of Moro youths) Amelil “Commander Ronnie” Malaguiok many concessions, including positions in government, lands, houses in Barangay Maharlika Village, Taguig City, Metro Manila, among others.
Salapuddin recalled that it was in the early 1970s when the “Land for the Landless Program” of the national government was implemented, sending settlers from Luzon to Mindanao dubbed “Land of Promise” as agricultural lands in the country’s biggest island were owned by “hacienderos”.
There’s one problem, the SPDA CEO said. “The problem then was the lands they referred to (are) the lands of the Muslims in Mindanao. That gave birth to the Moro rebellion of the MNLF because the ILAGA armed bands were attacking Muslim villages.”
He said the lands the government declared for SPDA were illegally occupied by various groups and individuals without any formal arrangement with the Authority.
“When I get appointed as Administrator and CEO of SPDA by President Duterte and was reappointed by President BBM (Bongbong Marcos), I focus on developing the lands to generate income as a corporation,” he says.
“We notified all illegal or informal occupants and conducted consultation and coordination with the LGUs (local government units) of Wao and Manabilang Municipalities, to inform them that SPDA is going to operate its land, when we launched the Agro-Industrial Development Program (AIDP) and are in the process of preparing it to be declared by PEZA (Philippine Economic Zone Authority) so we can invite locators to the area to trigger socio-economic growth in that former battle zone area during the height of the MNLF struggle.”
He lamented that the problem was that some those informal occupants planting agricultural crops without formal permission or arrangement with SPDA refused to cooperate, even if SPDA intended to relocate them outside the corporate farm of the Authority which was already “committed to our foreign partners like KENNEMER Foods International and ASPAC Precision AG.
Salapuddin said the said farmere occupied and farmed the SPDA property, not one of them having paid any fee, compensation, or gave hare to agency for the past decades.
“Under our Charter, we are authorized to create economic zones and collect fees from it. Unfortunately, they refuse to be profiled or enter into a mutually beneficial arrangement or pay any lease or rental fee for the use of the land.
“SPDA is just trying its best to prosecute its mandates in the area, in close coordination with the LGU of Manabilang Municipality. Unfortunately, they refuse to cooperate in spite they have been earning from the use of SPDA lands. (♧)