THE Department of Agrarian Reform declared on Wednesday null and void the selling and leasing out of the farm lands awarded to the farmer-beneficiaries of Hacienda Luisita Inc.
“Buying or leasing is against the law,” Agrarian Reform Secretary Rafael Mariano said.
He threatened to throw the full force of the law against those who would defy the order.
“This is a decisive action to defend and assert the rights of the farmers to own and cultivate their awarded farm lots,” he said.
Because of the department’s order, he said, the vast Hacienda Luisita in Tarlac was now under the full control of the farmer-beneficiaries.
Mariano’s order came after a three-week validation of the estate’s 10 barangays placed under the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program.
The findings showed that local politicians and other influential personalities had “duped” the beneficiaries within the past three years since the distribution of the certificates of land ownership award.
The lots awarded to the 4,000 farmers had been leased or bought by local politicians or the aryendadors.
Mariano reminded the aryendadors or buyers of the rights and obligations of the CLOA holders, such as the 10-year prohibitory period for the buying, leasing and selling of awarded lots.
“The [validation] study revealed that local politicians, utilizing an illicit leaseback system known as aryendo, have duped thousands of cash-strapped agrarian reform beneficiaries of Hacienda Luisita into letting go of the farm lots already awarded to them,he said.
The study, conducted from March 6 to March 24 and April 3 to 7, revealed that within the last three years, almost 4,000 ARBs or 83 percent out of the total of 5,212 beneficiaries were not in possession of their awarded lands.
The aryendadors gained possession of the awarded lands when the beneficiaries faced financial difficulties, such as the lack of funds to produce crops or when there was an illness in the family.
Mariano slammed the local politicians for preying on the weaknesses of the farmers.
“The practice of aryendo is illegal and a willful and deliberate obstruction in the delivery of the agrarian reform program,he said.