A Matter Of Life and Death for SRFA

A letter of appeal by Fr. Crispin Mostajo, CSsR (FARDEC Chairperson) and Ms. Estrella Catarata (FARDEC Executive Director)

This is just to update our partners of the sad situation of an impending eviction currently faced by our fellow farmers, the San Roque Farmers Association (SRFA) in Bonbon, Aloguinsan, Cebu.SRFA is composed of more than 86 farming households farming in 168 hectares of land  tilled by their peasant parents since 1910's. To note, in the 70's farmers were given Certificate of Land Transfers as supposedly beneficiaries of the government's agrarian reform program PD 27 Operation Land Transfer. In the early 1990's, farmers were threatened with eviction by the ”claiming landowner" Gantuangco ordering them to stop harvesting their corn produce. Then in 1993, the  farmers, fed up with the oppressive treatment of the Gantuangco's, decided to organize themselves to assert their right. They formed the SRFA and collectively succeeded in harvesting their produce and stayed on the lands they are farming until now. 
 

Bioethanol plant to displace farmers in Isabela

Green Futures  Innovations, Inc. (GFII), a joint venture between Japan’s Corporation and JGC Corporation, together with the Philippine Bioethanol and Energy Investments Corporation and Taiwanese holding company GCO are planning to build a P6 billion bioethanol plant in San Mariano, Isabela which will be operational by March 2012.

According to GFII president Reynaldo P. Bantug, the plant will produce 54 million liters of bioethanol  and generate 100,000 megawatt-hours of electricity annually.

However, the said bioethanol project will result in the displacement of farmers and IPs, based on the National Fact Finding Mission (NFFM) conducted by Danggayan Dagiti Mannalon ti Isabela  (DAGAMI), Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP) and the Rural Missionaries of the Philippines (RMP). The FFM was carried out in San Mariano, Isabela last February 22-23. An International Fact Finding Mission (IFFM) was later organized by the People’s Coalition on Food Sovereignty (PCFS), Ibon International, Asian Peasant Coalition (APC), KMP and DAGAMI last May 30 to June 3 to confirm the findings of the earlier mission and to bring the issue to the global arena.

Of the 6,000 hectares planned for the nursery site, 2,200 hectares were already used which resulted to one thousand families being displaced in 8 baranggays of San Mariano. A total of 11,000 hectares are intended for the bioethanol project. They plan on making it the country’s biggest producer of bioethanol.