THE Federation of Free Farmers (FFF) is urging President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. to reaffirm the government's commitment to implement agrarian reform on public lands, citing concerns about certain government agencies not adhering to Executive Order (EO) 79.
EO 79, issued by former president Rodrigo Duterte in 2019, mandates the turnover of unclassified public lands and government-owned lands for agrarian reform to benefit qualified beneficiaries.
FFF Chairman Leonardo Montemayor said that their call to the President is in relation to the announcement and intention of some government agencies including the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), Department National Defense (DND), and the Department of Justice (DoJ) to lease extensive areas under their control to benefit big corporations.
"The DENR's recent announcement to offer — on a competitive bidding basis — a million hectares of denuded forests to private sector interests seeking to restore these lands as investments and for 'carbon credits'," said Montemayor.
He also mentioned that about thousands of hectares within government reserves are being utilized by entities such as the Philippine Army and the Bureau of Corrections (BuCor) under the DoJ, working alongside the business sector, for transformation of their lands into extensive plantations, among others.
Montemayor also said that other public lands are being converted for other uses such as the Kibaritan Military Reservation, spanning 46,000 hectares across various municipalities in Bukidnon and Lanao del Sur.
"The Mindanao Army Training Group (MATG) in Camp Kibaritan, Kalilangan, Bukidnon is forcibly removing Higaonon indigenous and Christian farmers from their 195-hectare farm area that are devoted to food crops," said Montemayor.
"Many of them had been there before the reservation was proclaimed in 1963," he added.
On March 23, 2023, the MATG's social media post indicated that the Philippine Army, in collaboration with investors, is eyeing converting the farmers' livelihoods into a "hybrid banana plantation" for food security purposes.
The BuCor and the Philippine Export Zone Authority, meanwhile, have announced intentions to allocate a minimum of 26,000 hectares from the 38,000-hectare Iwahig Penal Colony in Palawan for the establishment of a large-scale economic and manufacturing enclave.
EO 79 mandates the transfer of all unclassified public lands and government-owned lands that are suitable for agriculture or no longer necessary for their initial purpose to the Department of Agrarian Reform. These lands are to be distributed to qualified beneficiaries.
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