Cavite’s Screen Hero is Now Acting a Villain, Farmers Say

Nardong Putik, the legendary screen name of now Senator Ramon Revilla, is back in the limelight this time – seen from some farmers’ point of view – as a villain. Revilla is facing possible investigation in the Senate for charges that he has been threatening to evict farmers from the land which the latter say they have been tilling for generations. The senator insists the land is his.

By Alexander Martin Remollino
Bulatlat.com

Sen. Ramon Revilla, whose real name is Jose Mari M. Bautista, is best known for portraying Leonardo Manecio (Nardong Putik), a Robin Hood-type outlaw in his native province of Cavite who managed to elude the police many times (supposedly due to an anting-anting or amulet) before being shot to death in a police operation.

Now, he’s fighting a real-life scene – a land dispute.

Farmers in Barangay (village) Cabangaan, Silang, Cavite see Revilla not as the Nardong Putik they saw in old films but for getting them into a heated dispute over the land which they said they and their ancestors have been farming for more than 90 years.

In a press conference last June 3 in Quezon City, members of the Samahan ng Magsasaka sa Cabangaan (Samaca), Kalipunan ng mga Magsasaka sa Kabite, and the Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas said Senator Revilla has been threatening 37 peasant families (167 individuals) in Cabangaan to vacate "within six months and without precondition" the land they have been tilling.

Samaca chair Teodoro Garcia, they and their ancestors have been working on the land productively since the eruption of the nearby Taal Volcano in 1911. Back then, the major crops on the land were coconut, rice, and vegetables.

At present, the 25-hectare land is planted mainly with coffee, based on the tax declaration under the name of Jose Mari M. Bautista. Other crops growing on the land are banana, coconuts, papaya, palay, string beans, and other vegetables and root crops.

"Up to now, we're making these lands productive," Garcia said.

"Where will we go (if the land is taken from us)?" Garcia added. "The senator wants us and our families to die of hunger by taking away the main source of our livelihood. He should recognize and respect our right to the land we have long tilled."

The farmers suspect that the land, which is near the Tagaytay highlands, would be converted, into a first-class subdivision or a golf course.

Revilla and his family have been involved in the real estate business. He has headed three real estate companies: the JAB Realty and Development Corporation, the Sea and Rivers Estate, and the Southfield Estate. When his family's film outfit Imus Productions folded up in 1989, his wife and one of his daughters - who had been managing the company-went full-time into the real estate business. Imus Productions, named after the town where the Revillas now live, was reestablished in 2002.

Andrea Bautista, one of the senator’s daughters, said, "I hope the allegation is just a mistake because in the first place, the land is ours."

Reacting on June 4, Garcia said, "Andrea's statement is an outright denial of the right of tenant farmers to the lands. The DAR (Department of Agrarian Reform) must immediately intervene and recognize our right to the land."

Revilla, for his part, said he has been a "good and gracious landlord" to his tenants.

But Garcia said the very imposition of a six-month timeframe within which to leave the land "strongly shows his arrogance and despotism toward tenant farmers."

Harassment, exploitation and oppression

The Samaca leader has also accused Revilla of harassing them and acting like a warlord in Cavite province. He is worried that the senator would "strike back" at them. "In our meeting last May 10, the senator himself warned me not to go against him because, according to him, he is the 'third' most powerful man in the country," he said. However, Garcia says he and the other farmers are determined to fight back. "We would resolutely defend our right to the land…. We are more than determined to end various cases of exploitation and oppression at the hands of Revilla," he said.

The Samaca leader says Revilla has been "cornering" all their coconut harvests and "squeezing" a P1,500 fixed rent which was arbitrarily imposed in place of a 70-30 sharing agreement from their coffee and palay harvest. These are signs of greed on the part of the actor-turned-lawmaker, he says.

Garcia also accused Amelita Rolle, municipal agrarian reform officer (MARO), of siding with the senator in the land dispute. The farmer-leader called on Agrarian Reform Secretary Roberto Pagdanganan to "immediately issue a status quo order concerning the 25-hectare property in Barangay Cabangaan to stop Revilla from forcibly ejecting us from our land."

Meanwhile, the KMP has called for a Senate "intercommittee inquiry" about the accusations against Revilla. KMP chair Rafael Mariano, who also heads the Bagong Alyansang Makabayan and the worker-peasant alliance Anakpawis, asked the Senate Committees on Agrarian Reform, Ethics, and Agriculture and Food to immediately hold a no-holds-barred inquiry on the charge against Revilla and prevent him from forcing farmers to vacate their land.

"These inquiries should not be limited to the landgrabbing case but must include all other unethical actions committed by their colleague against tenant farmers," Mariano, himself a farmer, said.

CARP should be junked

The KMP chair says that the case against the senator proves once more that the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) is a sham.

"Vast tracts of land belonging to big landlords like Danding Cojuangco in Negros and Sen. Revilla's 25-hectare land in Cavite remain untouched by the anti-peasant and pro-landlord CARP," Mariano said. He added that after 15 years of its existence, "the bogus CARP deserves to be junked."

Signed in 1988 by then President Corazon Cojuangco-Aquino, the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Law (CARL) of 1988 includes lands above 24 hectares in the list of targets for redistribution. However, lands of such size, especially if planted with commercial crops such as coffee, are among the last priorities under the law. Critics say that these and other loopholes in the CARL make big landlords virtually invulnerable to its provisions. Bulatlat.com

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