Last October 10, farmers trekked more than 1,700 kilometers from Brgy. San Vicente, Sumilao, Bukidnon  in an effort to call attention to the injustice they have been suffering for a decade, and to ask President Gloria Arroyo to address their plight. After 60 days of walking, they were finally able to reach Manila, the seat of power.

But their plea for social justice seems to have fallen on deaf ears. Even while various legal luminaries and agrarian reform experts have argued for the revocation of the land use conversion order granted to the Quisumbings in favor of the awarding of the 144-hectare land to the Sumilao farmers, the government has yet to provide a decision to resolve the case. As some of the Sumilao farmers themselves lamented, the delays in the resolution of their case exposes government's failure to enforce agrarian reform in highly-contested private agricultural lands such as the Quisumbing property.

How it began

Ten years ago in 1997, a rash of agrarian cases which came to be known as the "reversal cases" caught the attention of the nation, after one of the groups affected by the reversal cases staged a hunger strike in front of the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR).

The Sumilao case involved a 144-hectare agricultural land situated in San Vicente, Sumilao, Bukidnon. The property was formerly owned by the Quisumbing family and managed through the Norberto Quisumbing, Sr. Management and Development Corporation. Eventually, covered under the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP), the Certificate of Land Ownership Award (CLOA) was awarded to the 137 members of the Mapadayonong Panaghiusa sa mga Lumad Alang sa Damlag (MAPALAD) in 1995. 

The Quisumbings filed an application for conversion but this was denied by then DAR Secretary Ernesto Garilao reasoning that as prime agricultural land, the area was exempt from conversion by virtue of DAR Administrative Order No. 20, series of 1992. The Sumilao saga should have ended happily right there and then if not for the unfortunate intervention of then Executive Secretary Ruben Torres, who reversed the decision. The reversal was based on little more than a mere letter from the then-Bukidnon Governor Fortich, justifying the converion by saying that "converting the land in question would open great opportunities for employment and bring about real development towards a sustained economic growth in the municipality… distributing the land to would-be beneficiaries…does not guarantee such benefits."

As a protest to Torres' decision, the Sumilao farmers staged a hunger strike in front of the DAR, which in time created a huge public pressure for then-President Fidel Ramos to come up with a win-win solution to the issue. Former President Ramos through then-Executive Secretary Renato Corona decided to give 100 hectares of the land for the Sumilao farmers.

What has been done

Fast-forward to 2007 and the Sumilao beneficiaries, some of them the sons and daughters of the original hunger strikers are again in the headlines. Apparently, the Quisumbings did not appreciate a win-win solution where they did not attain all the winning. Somehow, they managed to sell the entire property to San Miguel Corporation forcing the Sumilao folk to go on a 1,700 kilometer trek all the way to Manila to fight for their forgotten cause right in the seat of government.

The recent status quo order issued by the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR), the agency of government mandated to implement the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP), has only served to heighten the indignation already being felt by the Sumilao farmers against what they deem to be an anti-farmer and anti-social justice regime. This indignation was expressed by the Sumilao farmers who padlocked the front gate of the DAR central office and held a sit down protest action. Led by Cardinal Gaudencio Rosales, the Sumilao farmers are scheduled to troop to Malacañang on December 17 to demand the distribution of the 144-hectare Quisumbing estate, which has recently been conveyed to the San Miguel Corporation (SMC).

Increasingly, the Sumilao case seems to be typical rather than an isolated case among the supposed beneficiaries of agrarian reform.  It is a sad state of affairs when the marginalized rural poor have to move heaven and earth to call the attention of public officials who are supposed to be looking after their welfare.

The apparent callousnes with which Arroyo administration officials have been resolutely snubbing the farmers puts into question administration's claim that it is serious about providing a substantial social payback. The contrast between President Arroyo's constant carping about the social payback the ordinary Filipinos would be enjoying under the remaining years of her presidency and the shabby treatment that has met the Sumilao farmers could not be more glaring. Here you have a president trying to project an aura of beneficence even as her administration continues to give the farmers the cold shoulder. Here you have a leader diligently labeling her pet projects, social payback, even though she remains clueless as to exactly what kind of payback the people need.

The President is known to have a sharp, calculating mind. It is unfortunate that in the cold calculus of political survival, i.e., her political survival, the Sumilao farmers do not appear to count for much.

The Sumilao case could prove to be a test case for the President's commitment to a genuine social payback. If she is sincere about providing a meaningful return for the country, putting her foot down against attempts to roll back the gains of the poor under a program like agrarian reform, should be a no-brainer. If she finally intervenes and manages to neutralize the elite interests which have thus far ensured government's frigid reception to the Sumilao farmers plight, it would be a victory worthy of a 1,700 kilometer journey. It would also greatly enhance the credibility of her social payback concept. Otherwise, it would unmask the social payback as a mere gimmick, little more than a catchy phrase which is, to borrow a line from Shakespeare, "full of sound and fury, signifying nothing."