Farmers and townsfolk from Carmona City are up in arms after their 204-hectare communal farm was illegally converted to mixed residential and commercial land under the comprehensive land use plan of Carmona local government unit.

The group, Samahan ng Mamamayan para sa Kalikasan at Bayan or SamakaBayan has filed multiple motions for reconsideration before the Department of Agrarian Reform Adjudication Board seeking an issuance of a cease and desist order for the development of the land that was once ricefields.

SamakaBayan argued that the conversion was illegal on multiple bases. The conversion of the 278-year-old communal farm, they claim, did not go through public consultation and scrutiny. They further added that the conversion goes against the Administrative Order 01 Series 2002 of the DAR under section 4 of articles 2 and 4 which prohibits any application for conversion if the farmland is irrigated and irrigable land.

The farmland is located in the barangays of Maduya and Lantic in Carmona City and benefitted from the townsfolk through a decree issued by the Royal Audencia of Spain in March 1746. The decree established the Sorteo ng Bukid ng Bayan ng Carmona. The right to till in the communal farmland is raffled among the residents every three years during the celebration of the city’s fiesta.

“We have on multiple times have been going back and forth to the DAR Central office, pleading to hear our appeals but all have fallen on deaf ears despite the very blatant abuse of discretion that certified the conversion of a once productive agricultural land, contrary to their very own administrative order, “ Ochie Tolentino, leader of the group said.

Tolentino added that the Carmona LGU and the regional office of the National Irrigation Authority (NIA) committed grave and critical misrepresentation when they both attested that the farmland no longer had a water source.

“How is this even acceptable when the Carmona river has not dried up and the NIA has installed three irrigation dams including a solar-powered dam and certified that the communal farms were serviced by the NIA through the Maduya and Lantic Communal Irrigation systems,” they argued.

The Carmona LGU agreed to a Joint Venture with SM Prime Holdings to develop the land and the construction of its new city hall.

“We call on the DAR to perform its mandate rather than be instrumental in the dispossession of the marginalized of Carmona when land grabbing cases in the province are proliferating,” said Sam Malizon, coordinator of Partido Lakas ng Masa in Southern Tagalog (PLM-ST).

SAMAKABayan and PLM-ST held a dialogue and protest at the DAR Central office.