Farmers of premier, irrigated rice land harassed by Deca Homes

In previous years the rice paddies in photos below,

at Brgy. Balabag, Pavia, Iloilo would be blooming 

with summer crops after the the rice harvest -  tomatoes, melons, eggplants, 

thanks to the intricate network of irrigation canals of the

National Irrigation Administration (NIA)

that brought water from Aganan River Dam from neighboring S

an Miguel town.

Families along the irrigation canals further add to their keeps by growing

taro (dagmay, gabi), alogbate, kamote, bananas and raising livestocks

like ducks.

Today, only the dried, stumps of palay and some shoots thrive now. There is

no water. 

The NIA canals have dried up.

The NIA canal has dried up this early. No, the drying up

is artificial. It is intended to add pressure to farmers to leave as demanded

by Deca Homes. Some of the farmers are EP (emancipation patent)

 or (Certificate of Land Title) holders, meaning, they

have the rights to own their farms as the land owners

already got paid by government through the

Land Bank of the Philippines.

Below are pictures of parched up NIA canal.

Deca Homes have already brought in heavy equipment, construction

materials, and built initial infrastructures (roads and ditches) to convert a premier

rice land, over 100 hectares in subdivision.

Pictures below show construction activities 

ILOILO CITY (March 24, 2017) -- A group of farmers trooped to the Iloilo Provincial Capitol here to report their woes to Gov. Arthiur D. Defensor, Sr. They told him that the Developer Deca Homes have been harassing them to force them to leave their farms at Brgy. Balabag, Pavia, some 15 kilometers north of this city.

Defensor assigned their case to Atty. Edgar Claudio Sumido, on of the provincial legal officers. They told the governor that even their barangay chair took side with Deca Homes in harassing them. On several occasions, armed goons roamed their farms echoing the same demand for them to leave.

Sumido told them that Deca Homes committed an illegal act of starting construction works without the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) approving its application for conversion of the property from agricultural to residential or commercial category.

The DAR Region 6 office in fact, issued a cease-and-desist order (CDO) to Deca Homes last December but the developer continued to defy it.

Sumido and this writer accompanied the farmers to the DAR provincial office. A legal officer there warned Deca Homes that it is liable for "illegal" or "premature" conversion, a criminal offense.

Sumido further accompanied the farmers to their farms and Deca's construction area.