Administer justice according to law.

In solidarity with the MAPALAD (Mapadayonong Panaghiusa sa mga Lumad alang sa Damlag) farmers of Sumilao, Bukidnon, we call on the Philippine Supreme Court, the highest court of the land, to uphold the law and finally deliver justice to whom it is due.

Reaffirming our unity with the thousands of MAPALAD supporters who have collectively raised an outcry over the continued deprivation of the MAPALAD farmers of the land that is rightfully theirs, we urge the Supreme Court, sitting en banc, to immediately resolve the pending case involving the said land and farmers, as constitutionally mandated.

Expressing our faith that the Supreme Court will render to the poor and powerless the kind of justice that is often reserved for the influential and privileged few, we demand that the High Court apply the law to the end that the MAPALAD farmers' rightful claim to their land is upheld.

In ruling that the farmers are not a real party to the case involving 144 hectares of land owned by the wealthy Quisimbing family, the Supreme Court's second division declared in its 24 April 1998 decision that in effect, these farmers- who have tilled the land and had been in possession of a registered Certificate of Land Ownership Award (CLOA) over the land by DAR - do not stand to gain or lose anything from this case.

Now, we decry the latest pronouncement of the Supreme Court on 27 January 1999: that the MAPALAD farmers do not have a standing in the case, and that their motion for consideration of the Supreme Court's 24 April 1998 decision was denied by the 17 November 1998 two-two resolution.

The 27 January 1999 resolution of the Supreme Court, aside from being prejudiced to the rights of the Sumilao farmers, leaves a damaging precedent as it shows disregard for the express provisions of the Constitution, the fundamental law of the land. The 1987 Constitution requires that in cases or matters heard by a division where a vote of at least three of the members of a division is not obtained, the case shall be decided by the Supreme Court en banc.

We call upon the Supreme Court to rectify the errors contained in the 27 January 1999 resolution by immediately nullifying the same, and to immediately hear and decide the MAPALAD case en banc on the merits. Nothing less than this is expected of this venerable Court, that a most grievous wrong might finally be set aright.

Philippine Jubilee Network
6 Malinis St. UP Village, Diliman, Quezon City, Philippines
Telefax (63-2) 921-6556 / E-mail: jubnetrp@codewan.com.ph

Chronology of the Sumilao Farmers' Struggle

Signature Petition: Renewing the people's support for the cause of the Mapalad Farmers

February 19,1999

As the MAPALAD farmers enter a new, and probably last chapter in their historic and peaceful struggle to own the land they till, we, the undersigned, renew our complete and sincere support for the farmers of Sumilao.

The Second Division of the Supreme Court, last January 27,1999, issued a Resolution rejecting their Motion to Intervene in the land case - affirming an earlier Resolution that the MAPALAD farmers, who are the most to be affected by the conversion of the 144-hectare estate in Sumilao into a golf course, are not party of interest in the case since they are mere "expectant beneficiaries" of the land under the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program of the country. The recent Resolution also indicated that the Supreme Court did not receive from the Department of Agrarian Reform, through the Office of the Solicitor General, a Motion for Reconsideration on an earlier Court Resolution, dated November 17,1998.

Said developments will result in another round of exhausting legal and extra-legal battles between the MAPALAD farmers and those committed to undermining their request for land and their effort to implement agrarian reform.

In this light, we commit to support and stand by the side of the MAPALAD farmers in their struggle to reclaim their land and to attain a meaningful agrarian reform in the country.

SIGNED,

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6 Malinis St. UP Village
Diliman, Quezon City