I copied this editorial from today's Philippine Daily Inquirer.
The Shepherd Finds His Voice
“OUR SALVATION DEPENDS ON HOW WE treat the poor.” Thus declared Gaudencio Cardinal Rosales, addressing the crowd that gathered at the Ateneo de Manila University campus last Wednesday to welcome the Sumilao farmers. He was referring to Matthew 25, where Jesus makes it clear that on Judgment Day we will be held accountable for what we have done to the poor: “For I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink, a stranger and you gave me no welcome, naked and you gave me no clothing, ill and in prison, and you did not care for me.... Amen, I say to you, what you did not for one of these least ones, you did not do for me. And these will go off to eternal punishment.”
The Sumilao farmers have walked some 1,700 kilometers from Bukidnon in search of their own salvation. They were beneficiaries of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program who were awarded their land titles in 1995. But the following year the land titles were cancelled. By a sleight of hand which the cardinal called “magic, magic,” the owner of the land applied for land conversion, and then Executive Secretary Ruben Torres overturned the ruling of the Department of Agrarian Reform and the mandate of the agrarian reform law.
When the Sumilao farmers went on hunger strike in 1997, President Fidel V. Ramos, like Solomon, offered a “win-win” solution, awarding 100 hectares to the farmers and the remaining 44 hectares for land-use conversion. But the Supreme Court found this invalid on technical grounds, saying that Torres’ order had become final and so the time to challenge it had lapsed.
It has been 10 years since the Sumilao farmers went on strike. The landowner’s promise of converting and developing the land into agro-industrial use, which became their alibi to escape CARP and which Torres foolishly bought, has not materialized, exposing it for what it was: a ploy to circumvent the law.
There is a new owner San Miguel Corp., which is now rushing to build a piggery in the area. “Pinagpalit kami sa.mga baboy (We were replaced by hogs),” says one Sumilao farmer.
The farmers have appealed their case to the DAR, which seems to be taking its sweet time on their case. In the meantime, to dramatize their plight, the Sumilao farmers made their long march, perhaps to freedom and justice. “Hindi dapat kami naglalakad, dapat nagtatanim lang kami ng makakain ng bansa (We shouldn’t be walking but planting to feed the nation),” says another Sumilao farmer.
Cardinal Rosales was at the gates of the Ateneo to welcome them on a short stopover. Upon seeing him, a woman farmer ran toward their former pastor and melted in his arms, “Bishop!”
During their long march, critics have tried to discredit the identity of the farmers, saying they were puppets of some activist groups. But the cardinal, who was bishop of Bukidnon for 11 years before transferring to
“Tilt the law in favor of the poor,” said the cardinal. Reading from his letter to President Macapagal-Arroyo, which he asked the farmers to personally give to her, he said that he didn’t want to get into the details of their case with the President, except to say that he knew the farmers and that there is one thing that he is certain of: int his country the rich are always favored over the poor. He ended his homily with an appeal: Give back the land to the Sumilao farmers!”
Cardinal Rosales has so far stayed clear of politics. He has been criticized for doing so. But the mind of the cardinal is clear when it comes to the poor. His Pondo ng Pinoy, a financing scheme social projects, demonstrates his love for poor. His pronouncement last Wednesday is clarion call that in matters like the Sumilao case, he will not go silent, for, as he says, our very salvation depends on this.
The Prince of the Church has spoken. Will President of the Republic heed his voice?
Commentary
Nono Alfonso, SJ
John J. Carroll Institue on Church and Social Issues
From the Philippine Daily Inquirer
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