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As you can read in parts I (http://philippines-living.com/topic/few-adventures-finding-negotiating-l...) and II (http://philippines-living.com/topic/adventures-negotiating-land-purchase...) we had spent quite a lot of time negotiating to buy a piece of land, paid for the survey, etc.  Well, count that as a few months and a few hundred plus dollars of tuition.

We did finally have a figure that was close enough to the size of the land (only 80% of the size they had originally argued, due to a judicial settlement between the owners and one group of tenants, that was conveniently not mentioned in the original negotiations).  But in our renegotiations due to the changed size of the lot, we had made a subtle mistake - instead of agreeing to raise the price by 20,000 pesos to pay off some other tenants, we agreed to pay off those other tenants ourselves without a specific amount noted.

We took the initiative to talk with the Barangay Captain, who said we could come by his house Saturday morning with the other tenants and the owner.  It sounded like an informal chat.

However, when Saturday arrived, we were at the Barangay, and were told to go to the Barangay Hall, where we were the subject of an official meeting of the Barangay, complete with several anthems and signing attendance forms.  The Barangay Captain, who had previously always seemed very nice, hardly ever looked at me, and just ran through the proceedings quickly in Visayan, hardly giving any time for anything to be translated.

The payment the Barangay Captain mentioned was a hundred thousand something, which was, he claimed, ten percent.  When I asked Milyn to explain that this computation was off, and that ten percent was a different number, the tenant became jubilant, thinking that we had agreed to ten percent.  Unfortunately, we did not have much bargaining room.  I asked Milyn to translate the direct question to the Captain whether he thought it was fair.  I had to tell her to repeat herself again when I heard his answer.  Anyhow, both times he refused to answer the question, answering that if we didn't like it we could go try to apply through the DAR office.

So I decided we would just eat it - I said if they agreed to give us a third of the harvested corn and to immediately cease harvesting coconuts, leaving them for us, then we'd accept their price.  The tenant agreed.  His family members (who he had sublet some parts to) did not object either.  So we wrote down all the terms we had agreed to, and then we read the document out loud.  When we were doing so, the tenants decided to renegotiate and refused to agree to leaving the coconuts, then started to argue their case.

Frankly, we already had an agreement, and it was generous.  Why the tenants have a right to any compensation at all is beyond the power of my mind, having done nothing but take from the land, not improving it whatsoever. But going back on the agreement, that's just not neighborly.

So we thanked everythone there and left.  I have no interest in living in that place anymore. They can keep their coconuts, I guess.

Later my wife told me that the other tenants were relatives of the Barangay Captain.  It's not easy to make sense of this country in a hurry.

I did not get video of the original agreement, but I do have this video of the reading and the renegotiation requested by the tenants.