No connivance with militant peasant group, insists DAR Negros official

BACOLOD CITY — The provincial agrarian reform officer of Negros Occidental denied allegations that the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) has been conniving with Task Force Mapalad, a militant peasant group, in implementing the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) in the province.

PARO Felicidad Bañares reacted to allegations that municipal agrarian reform officers and the police are in cahoots with Task Force Mapalad and are being paid to hasten the installation of agrarian reform beneficiaries in CARP lands.

"It is unfair to accuse them because they are just doing their job," she said.

Bañares said she understands the predicament of several landowners but in the absence of any court orders restraining DAR, the agency has no choice but to implement the program.

The DAR was criticized after another agrarian reform beneficiary was killed last Wednesday during a confrontation with workers of Hacienda Cambuktot in Barangay Mansalanao, La Castellana town.

Tension has been escalating in the hacienda since February when the DAR installed farmer-beneficiaries identified with Task Force Mapalad.

This, despite a memorandum of understanding (MOU) signed in July 2005 by Mario Domingo, the slain chairman of the Cambuktot Agrarian Reform Beneficiaries Association (CARBA) and a Task Force Mapalad leader; Bañares, and Farley Gustilo, the landholding’s judicial administrator.

The MOU stipulated that 17 hectares of the 170-hectare property would be given to CARBA pending the resolution of certain issues regarding the property.

The landowners offered the hacienda for CARP coverage but would not give up ownership until the government compensated them.

After the MOU was signed, CARBA farmers and the hacienda workers peacefully tilled their farmlots, said Dr. Ruditha Gustilo, wife of Farley Gustilo.

This was disrupted only when Bañares, PARO Manuel Velasco and MARO Nelda Salmorin installed the farmers last Feb. 1.

Gustilo said the farmers took possession of the entire property and even set up barricades to prevent the other hacienda workers from entering.

She said they have exhausted all possible means to maintain peace and order in the hacienda.

"It is like a time bomb. We expect violence to erupt anytime," Gustilo said.

A day prior to Domingo’s killing, the landowners met with provincial police director Superintendent Charles Calima and Regional Mobile Group commander Rene Aspera to seek immediate intervention because Task Force Mapalad was allegedly harassing and intimidating their workers.

"We were overtaken by events," Gustilo said, adding that they want a speedy resolution to their case.

"We are not resisting land reform. We just want to be justly compensated and make sure that our real beneficiaries are awarded," she said.