Some 1,030 farmers from Rodriguez (formerly Montalban) Rizal have urged retiring Supreme Court Justice Reynato Puno to allow them to till a 1,645-hectare agricultural land placed under the agrarian reform program as early as 1972.

At a news conference, Mascap barangay chairwoman Nelia Zonio, along with farmers belonging to the Samahan ng mga Magsasaka sa Mascap, Rodriguez (SAMMACRO), appealed to Puno to speed up the resolution of a land dispute they filed in February 2007.

They presented five certificates of full payment of land amortization issued to the original landowner, a certain Alfonso Doronilla, and certificates of land ownership award issued by former agrarian reform secretary now-Senator Miriam Defensor-Santiago in 1992 as well as transfer certificates of title by virtue of Presidential Decree No. 27 issued initially to 75 farmer-beneficiaries (FBs) by the late president Ferdinand Marcos in 1972.

“We believe the farmers are the legal owners of the contested land, and not the heirs of Doronilla, or any second party,” Soriano told reporters. She said Doronilla mortgaged the property to a businessman despite the land’s coverage under PD No. 27.

Rogelio Lopez, barangay agrarian reform committee chairman, said that the businessman allegedly prevented the farmers from tilling the land, and wanted to convert the property for residential use in 1991.

But Santiago rejected the land conversion application, he said, adding they filed suits before the lower court and won.

But the businessman filed a case with the Court of Appeals (CA) that ruled in their favor in 2003.”

“We just learned that we lost the suit in 2006, prompting us to elevate it to the Supreme Court,” he said.