“We’re 80-percent sure. We expect [the agreement] to be signed by Monday,” Peter Tuminhay said yesterday in a phone interview shortly after the farmers reached Ateneo de Manila University in Quezon City, following a 10-hour-long Stations of the Cross ceremony from Manila.

Tuminhay said the farmers—who are backed by Manila Archbishop Gaudencio Cardinal Rosales and other Church officials—strongly believed that SMFI would honor the “compromise agreement” it had proposed on the disputed property.

“We’re confident that SMFI will give the land to us because they initiated the compromise agreement,” he said. “We believe in them.”

Negotiations with San Miguel Corp., parent company of SMFI, are to resume on Monday.

The farmers were reluctant to discuss the terms of the settlement, after apparently agreeing not to speak about the matter ahead of the planned issuance of a joint statement on Tuesday.

One of them, Rene Peñas, said the agreement was still being drafted and had yet to be signed.

But Arlene Bag-ao, the farmers’ legal counsel, said that while the settlement details had yet to be finalized, the negotiating parties had agreed on the basic principle that the disputed land would be returned to the farmers soon.

“They still have to finalize the agreement. Hindi pa talaga tapos (It’s not yet over). They will still have to talk about the mode of transfer. Pero maliwanag na sa amin na ang lupa ay ibabalik na sa Sumilao farmers (But it is already clear to us that the land will be returned to the Sumilao farmers),” Bag-ao told the Inquirer.

Repeated attempts yesterday by the Inquirer to reach SMC officials were fruitless.

Text messages to SMC president Ramon Ang went unanswered, while corporate communications officer Jane Llanes-Francisco said the company lawyers responsible for the Sumilao case could not be contacted.

No problem

Tuminhay said that under the draft agreement, SMFI would apportion 50 ha from the original site, and 94 ha from an adjacent piece of land owned by former Sumilao Mayor Rey Baula.

Asked about the prospects of the farmers not tilling a contiguous area, he said: “We don’t have any problem with that. Anyway, the new land being offered is adjacent to our land.”

He said what the farmers would object to was if the 94-ha were some distance from the 50-ha in the original site.

Tuminhay, former chair of the Mapalad Multipurpose Cooperative that comprises the first generation of Sumilao farmers, said he and his colleagues were merely waiting for the agreement to be signed before boarding a ship bound for Mindanao.

“It’s hard to go back home unless we have proof, in black and white, that they are returning our 144-ha land,” he said, adding:

“We won’t leave until we have a copy of the agreement.”

The farmers had been shown a map by agrarian reform advocate Christian Monsod on which SMFI plotted the 50-ha within the original site, according to Tuminhay.

“So what remains to be plotted is the 94-ha,” he said.

The farmers prayed at what represented Stations of the Cross from Manila to Quezon City, walking on foot from the Caritas Manila office in Pandacan starting at 6:30 a.m. and stopping by churches until they reached the Ateneo at 4 p.m.

Mechanics

Bag-ao said the farmers had already submitted proposals on the mechanics of the land’s transfer to them.

Last year, the farmers walked from Sumilao to bring their claim to the very steps of Malacañang. They reached Manila in October.

In December, after meeting twice with the farmers and Church officials, President Macapagal-Arroyo authorized the issuance of an order reclassifying the agro-industrial property to agricultural land covered by the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program.

But it did not include an explicit cease-and-desist order to stop SMFI’s ongoing construction of a piggery at the disputed site.

The negotiators will still have to flesh out the mode of transfer of the land to the farmers, and clarify what will be done to the construction activity.

There are also two pending appeals questioning the awarding of the land to the farmers—one filed with the Office of the President by SMC, and the other at the Supreme Court by the former land owners, the Quisumbings, saying that their warranties for selling the property to SMC had been affected by the land grant to the farmers.

Jericho March

Such “loopholes” in the Palace order brought the Sumilao farmers back to Manila earlier this month. Since then, they had been engaged in a “Jericho March” around Malacañang to demand their immediate installation as owners of the land.

According to Bag-ao, Malacañang and SMC officials have requested the farmers not to push through with their march because negotiations were being expedited.

So far, the farmers have been able to complete three days of their Jericho March.

The farmers are scheduled to mark their victory today with a thanksgiving Mass coinciding with the Easter celebration at the Ateneo.

But Bag-ao said today’s Mass would be low-key because Cardinal Rosales would join the farmers at another thanksgiving Mass on Wednesday at the Nazarene Catholic School in Manila, following the projected signing of the agreement.

Malacañang itself is noncommittal about the hoped-for breakthrough in the case.

Said Lorelei Fajardo, deputy spokesperson of the President: “It would be premature to comment on the supposed settlement until the same has been finalized and we get the details. We however wish that issues attending to the farmers’ request will be settled to the benefit of all concerned.” With reports from Daxim Lucas and Michael Lim Ubac