Land is God-given gift meant to benefit everyone

Basic to any agrarian reform program is the precept that “God alone owns the land,” and that land is a God-given gift meant for the benefit of all. This precept is repeated in the Bible as often as the condemnation of monopolistic land ownership. And the “Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church” reiterates that “land monopoly” is “condemned by the Church’s social doctrine” (#300).  We therefore join our voices with all those demanding the distribution of land to tillers as a matter of social justice.

Yet we are also aware that under the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP), which was “Extended with Reforms” (Carper), the policy of the government has been to give with one hand and take with the other. Take the farmers in Barangay Maskap, Montalban, Rizal: Given land under Presidential Decree 27 and having completely paid the amortization in several cases, they are now being told that the land belongs to the Araneta family, and their titles are being cancelled. Or those in San Jose del Monte, Bulacan; they were given Certificates of Land Ownership Award (CLOAs) that are now being revoked as their land will be converted for use of the MRT 7.

At the Central Mindanao University, Bukidnon, the farmers were granted CLOAs only to be told later that these would be cancelled because their land falls under one of the exemptions in the Carper. Even the farmers in Hacienda Luisita, who were finally awarded their land after many lost their lives in the struggle, now face the possibility of having the land priced so high that their gains may be lost because of their inability to pay, whereas they have morally paid for the land through virtual slave labor for so many years.

We, therefore, raise our voices not only in favor of distributing land to the tillers. We raise our voices also to call for an agrarian reform program that covers all agricultural land without the exemptions in Carper, and for a law that distributes land to farmers and does not allow cancellation of their land titles under any conditions other than that the farmer no longer wants to till the land—a law based on Leviticus 25 that says “The land shall not be sold in perpetuity, for the land is mine… in the year of jubilee the land shall be released, and he (the original owner), shall return to his property (Lev. 25:23, 28). Jesus declared that the Jubilee Year is now (Lk. 4:19). We also join with all the families of those who have fallen victims to militarization and violence because they dared to stand for these principles and called for genuine agrarian reform.

We believe our prophetic role calls us to stand with those suffering injustice and oppression, to look beyond “what is” to “what can be,” and scrutinize critically any policies and programs in light of the gospel imperative. Our prophetic role impels us to be with the farmers in their cry for land and justice.

—SR. PATRICIA FOX, NDS,

convenor,

Religious Discernment Group,

60 14th Street,

New Manila, Quezon City