The Bicol masses currently face widespread plunder and land grabbing by local bureaucrat-capitalists, big landlords, and foreign corporations for ecotourism, mining, renewable energy, and land conversion. This threatens thousands of farmers and fisherfolk with eviction and loss of livelihood across the entire region.

Local bureaucrat-capitalists, who are also big landlords like the Escudero, Hamor, Co, Salceda, Villafuerte, Alsua, Mitra, Cua, and Kho clans, rapidly amassed land, businesses, and resources using their positions in local government and public funds. They also engage in anomalous infrastructure projects in their areas and other regions through ownership or partnerships with construction companies.

Bureaucrat-capitalists multiplied, expanded and hastened the conversion of agricultural lands to residential, commercial, and industrial uses to make the region appear developing. Resorts owned or funded by local bureaucrats have also multiplied. In the name of ecotourism and renewable energy projects, they peddle Bicol’s natural resources to foreigners and bourgeois compradors.

Land grabbing in Bicol is abetted by government agencies like the Department of Agrarian Reform, Department of Environment and Natural Resources, Department of Agriculture, and local governments, while the military and police protect the operations and projects.

Grabbing land from farmers

At least 11 companies operate mines in Camarines Norte. These include Mt. Labo Exploration and Development Corp. (MLEDC) and Galeo Equipment Corp. MLEDC mines copper and gold on 3,482 hectares in Labo and has a new application for 2,980 hectares in Mt. Labo, covering the province’s watershed. The company is owned by SRM Gold Inc (40% subsidiary of RTG Mining Inc, an Australia-based company), and TVI Resources Dev. Phils. Inc. (60% controlled by TVI Pacific Inc, a Canada-based company, and 40% by Prime Resource Holding Inc. of the Villar family).

Hundreds of Camarines Sur farmers face eviction by Governor Luis Raymund Villafuerte’s Wanderlust Land Development Corp. which claims ownership of 1,014 hectares in Barangay San Ramon and Salvacion in the municipality of Siruma. Meanwhile, 200 residents of Barangay Fabrica and Pawili in Bula face imminent eviction because of a land dispute between Conrado Colarina of Ruby Shelters Builders and Development Corporation and the Tan family, both illegitimate residents in the area.

In Masbate, Filminera Resources Corp. (jointly operated by Canada-based B2Gold Corp. and Zoom Mineral Holdings) continues mining operations in Aroroy. It encroaches on 1,755 hectares of mountainous land in the municipalities of Mobo, Milagros, and Uson. Communities around the mine are under military rule to suppress residents’ resistance.

In 2023, Governor Antonio Kho evicted 94 farmer families from the barangays of Cabungahan, Calapayan, and Villaluna in the municipality of Cawayan and seized lands in Pio V. Corpuz, Placer, and Cataingan for his interests in ranching, ecotourism, and mining.

Over 21,000 residents also face eviction from Empark Land Development Inc.’s planned Masbate International Tourism and Economic Zone in the municipalities of Dimasalang and Palanas.

In Albay, the Co family’s Sunwest Corp fenced off and seized land at the foot of Mayon Volcano, while hundreds of mud crab gatherers and fisherfolk lost their livelihoods because of the coastal road project and reclamation in the municipality of Gubat in Sorsogon.

Destructive renewable energy projects

Since 2022, at least 77 renewable energy projects (solar, wind, and geothermal) have been planned and are currently under construction across the region. Camarines Sur has the most with 27 projects, followed by Camarines Norte with 21. The largest and most damaging to Bicolnon livelihoods include the two offshore windfarms in San Miguel Bay in Camarines Sur, owned by Copenhagen Infrastructure New Market Fund Corp. (Denmark-based company) and ACEN Corp. of Ayala Group; and Nexif Ratch Energy (Singapore- and Thailand-based company). Around 5,000 to 6,000 fisherfolk will lose their livelihoods because of the project.

Some projects in the region belong to comprador bourgeois like Sy, Villar, Consunji, Aboitiz, Ang, and Lopez, while some companies are based in China, Israel, Singapore, Thailand, Denmark, and Australia.