"Who Owns Handiong's Land?"

When Israel was in Egypt’s land –

  Let my people go.

Oppressed so hard they could not stand
Let my people go.   - Margaret Walker, Jubilee

            This was the question of the 2000 symposium in Bicolandia’s agrarian history relative with the celebration of the Jubilee Year on a theme, “return the land” for the month of July with Professor Danilo M. Gerona of Ateneo de Naga University as the lecturer-speaker.

            Basically, the symposium laid down the historical background embodying the question back to the past. It was the same question that brought us back to the pre-colonial and colonial period and introduced us to the significant-elite people who virtually owned the whole peninsula during those times. We relived the eventful moments when quintessential ties with the friars would spell influence and riches. Interestingly, those elite landed people belonged to the families of non-Bicolanos in origin, flesh and blood.

            That was before as it is now. These landed influential families cling to the land supposedly to be enjoyed by all humanity with all its bounties and fruits. Only the few who, by the god of their grace, have shared with the blessings of creation while the many who, by the grace of their gods, religiously pray the supplications of their ancestors hoping that there is indeed a heaven. After the silence of centuries, the situation of landholdings in the region relatively abides at the expense of the fortunate few whom, by reason alien to earth but known to man, remain untouched.

            According to the 1995 unofficial data from the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) among the top 10 provinces with large land distribution balances, Albay and Camarines Sur occupied the first two slots with the most of backlog (Gono, 1996). On the 12^th anniversary of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) which would have set reforms in the centuries-old unjust structures this year, the Department claimed to have distributed 55% of the target 1,688,887 hectares since 1988 (Philippine Peasant Institute, 2000). The program envisions the Philippines as a nation of family-sized farms tilled, developed, and most importantly owned by the ordinary citizens who wanted all their lives a piece of land on their own homeland. Twelve years of hoping, of waiting in vain, many farmers cultivate laboriously the lands of others to fill the cups and plates of their masters while opting to be silent with the drizzle of generosity from the masters. Silence and discontent like those of lambs and caterpillars are hovering around the air wanting to be something, to have something to complete their existence.

            Moreover, the program was instituted to humanize the dehumanizing state of the tenant-farmers but the lack of political will on the part of the government, the delay of land distribution to the rightful beneficiaries, the arrogance and undue deference to the landlords have contributed to the dehumanizing process of the landless.

            And the question still persists today. But the die is cast and the river is crossed. The torch is lighted and the flame is burning. We can go nowhere but here. Let us stand and dig together to clear mountains. Let us all be Handiong, a hero who surmounted difficulty and won victory. Anyway, who is afraid to answer the question?

            Who really owns Handiong’s land? The answer lies in our hands.