Yolanda-displaced communities now forced to
occupy forests due to gov’t neglect, continuing harassment by land developers
By:Mary Ann Manahan
PHOTO
CAPTION: A portion of the 282-hectare forest land in Brgy. Buaya
(Sicogon Island) has been declared as a "peoples' resettlement site" by
more than 300 families affected by Typhoon Yolanda. Photo courtesy of
Progreso Panay.
More than five months
after being left homeless by Typhoon Yolanda, residents of Sicogon Island are
still fighting for a decent place to rebuild their lives and their homes.
On April 12, members of
the Federation of Sicogon Island Farmers and Fisherfolk Association (FESIFFA),
along with the Save Agrarian Reform Alliance (SARA), sounded the alarm on the dire
state of over 6,000 residents of Brgys. Buaya, San Fernando, and Alipata in Sicogon
Island, Iloilo, whose homes, livelihoods and fishing craft have been devastated
since the onset of Typhoon Yolanda last November.
According to the groups,
not only has no single government agency assisted the residents of Sicogon
Islands in reconstructing their homes and rebuilding their lives— continuing harassments
and other rights violations by the Sicogon Development Corporation (SIDECO),
have prevented them from returning to their long-held lands.
“It has been already
five months and one day after Yolanda struck, but the government has completely
failed to protect the land rights of Sicogon’s residents from land-grabbers
like SIDECO,” said Raul Ramos, FESIFFA president. “Up to today, we are still
being forcibly prevented by SIDECO’s private security guards from rebuilding
houses that we, our families and other agrarian reform beneficiaries have been
living in for decades.This is not helped at all by the no-dwelling zone policy
of the government, which practically rendered more than 1,000 families
homeless.”
“With no options left to
rebuild our communities, we are being forced by the government and by SIDECO to
occupy public forest lands as a resettlement site, even without support and
approval from official authorities. Because government agencies have
systematically failed to protect our rights in the face of SIDECO’s post-Yolanda
land-grabbing efforts, we have nowhere else left to go,” Ramos added.
Ramos was referring to
the recent initiative of more than 200 Sicogon families to settle in a portion
of a 282-hectare public forest land area in Brgy. Buaya, Sicogon.
Since March 28, FESIFFA
members have sought to establish a residential camp, having been displaced by
Yolanda last November 2013, followed by a mass eviction orchestrated by SIDECO.
Earlier, claimed FESIFFA
in a statement, SIDECO had prohibited the island’s residents “to reconstruct or
even simply repair their houses. Instead, the corporation offered the residents
two options: a) PHP 150,000 for each family who will voluntarily vacate the
islands; and b) a relocation site in Barangay Jolog, Estancia Iloilo.”
Most of the families who
have opted for either of these options, according to FESIFFA, are now
attempting to return to the island, both due to the substandard quality of
relocation homes offered and the lack of available resettlement areas in the Yolanda-stricken
region.
At present, both SIDECO
and its allied officials in the local DENR are threatening to file cases
against FESIFFA farmers for their occupation of the public forest lands.
“SARA condemns the
government’s continuing neglect of the welfare of Sicogon Island’s residents,
most especially its consistent failure to protect their right to land,” said Trinidad
Domingo, SARA spokesperson. “The residents affected by SIDECO’s plans for a
tourism resort have ample legal documents to prove that they are agrarian
reform beneficiaries. This is a clear incident of land-grabbing facilitated by
both natural disasters and government’s lack of political will.”
“We, from the various
federation-members of SARA, demand a stronger political commitment from the
government to protect the right to land of small farmers and rural communities
like those from Sicogon Island. Stopping land-grabbing by developers like
SIDECO and ensuring the effective implementation of the agrarian reform program
will be the best venue to start demonstrating this stronger commitment,” Domingo
asserted.
According to various sources
and documents secured by SARA, SIDECO has entered into a joint venture partnership
with Ayala Land to undertake a claimed “Sicogon Island Redevelopment Project.”
In a recent media report
last April 9, Ayala Land director Antonino Aquino stated that “We’re looking
around for properties in Sicogon. We’re interested in expanding our tourism
portfolio.” (VerGarciaBlogs)
Iliac Diaz with wife. A liter of light.. (Original Photo by: Teddy Cho)
