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The Federation of Philippine Industries epitomizes the greed and materialism that the corporate world is unfortunately known for. When FPI made its statement on the Sumilao farmers, it demolished years of corporate social responsibility – and public relations work – that have been used by the private sector to show that big corporations are entities that uphold social values like compassion and solidarity.

FPI cautioned the government and the public against using emotion to resolve the Sumilao issue. It called for the rule of law in settling the decade-old land dispute. In a unsurprisingly heartless stance, it warned that a decision in favor of the farmers would be bad for the Philippine economy.

To believe that the fifty-five farmers who marched to Metro Manila all the way from Sumilao, Bukidnon were guided by greed and the desire for publicity reveals an abnormal lack of empathy and a poor understanding of the line that divides what is right and what is wrong. One does not brave torturous weather and other dangers to walk 1,600 kilometers for more than 2 months for mere publicity, in the same manner that it was not greed that drove the Sumilao farmers to go on hunger strike ten years ago. And it must be said that compared to the executives of FPI, who have lived privileged and comfortable lives, the Sumilao farmers know what the rule of law truly means.

They marched to protest the failure of our political institutions to give a just resolution to a land dispute that languished for more than a decade. Ten years ago, the contested 144-hectare property was put under the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program, and was supposedly awarded to the Sumilao farmers already. But they only knew of this development when the land owner, Norberto Quisumbing, contested the distribution of the property to the farmers. He manipulated loopholes in the law and applied for a land conversion order before the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) and the local governments of Sumilao and Bukidnon. He said that the property would be converted into an agro-industrial area, and he committed to construct an academy, a cultural center, a hotel, an industrial park, among others. As expected, the latter issued local resolutions that granted Quisumbing’s petition, despite the fact that LGUs do not have the authority to grant land conversion orders.

DAR, on the hand, denied the application for conversion because the law disallows the conversion of prime agricultural lands. With the help of an influential politician, Quisumbing asked then Executive Secretary Ruben Torres to reverse DAR’s decision, which Torres, again predictably, granted. The Sumilao farmers went on hunger strike to protest the reversal, and the campaign got massive support from various sectors. Bowing to public pressure, then President Fidel Ramos, in a move that he called a win-win solution to the dispute, issued an order that allocated 70% of the contested area to the farmers, with Quisumbing retaining 30% of the property.

Quisumbing elevated the case to the Supreme Court. Evading the constitutional issue surrounding the case, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of Quisumbing on the basis of technicality. It ruled that the conversion order that Torres issued was final and executory simply because DAR failed to question it on time.

Years after the SC decision, no development in the area took place. No academy, no hotel, no industrial park. Quisumbing sold the property to San Miguel Food, Inc. instead, which also allowed the property for a while. When the Sumilao farmers started raising the issue again, SMFI began constructing a hog farm in the area – again, another violation of the conversion order.

The remedy, according to the law, is that if the landowner violates the conversion order, the conversion order must be revoked and the property subjected to CARP again. If the rule of law were enforced, then the farmers didn’t have to walk to Manila to force the government to act. If the government is truly implementing the law, then it would have issued a cease and desist order to stop the illegal construction of SMFI’s hog farm.

The farmers have decided to go back to Bukidnon today. In their march to Manila, they have shown that if the rule of law were allowed to take its due course, sans any interference on the part of landlords and landed elites in the government and Congress, the only dispassionate and acceptable resolution to the issue is this – the land should be given to the Sumilao farmers because it is theirs.