Negros farmers ask DAR to review land award to 122 farm workers at Hacienda Malaga

Farm workers belonging to the Malaga-Cuenca Multipurpose Cooperative and the Malaga Independent Workers Union in the contentious Hacienda Velez-Malaga in Barangay Robles, La Castellana town, Negros Occidental are also willing to shave their heads or stage a hunger strike if it’s the only way to get the attention of the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR).

Both groups were asking DAR to review the Certificate of Land Ownership and Awards issued to 122 workers affiliated with the Task Force Mapalad before any installation in the hacienda is made. DAR Secretary Nasser Pangandaman has ordered the installation of the farmers this week.

Lawyer Mario Diaz, counsel for Cuenca, said the case involving the 144-hectare property is still pending before the Supreme Court and any attempt to forcibly install the TFM farmers may be held in contempt.

Cooperative president Rodolfo Tupas said that if farmers affiliated with the militant Task Force Mapalad can resort to those tactics for the DAR and the media to take notice of their demands, they will not hesitate to do the same.

Tupas clarified that the farmers are not resisting the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) because they also benefited from it but they are opposing the installation of TFM members who are not really workers of the landholdings owned by sugar planter Roberto Cuenca.

He also said that the 144-hectare property in question includes the day care center and elementary school for the children of the farm workers. It is also where the cooperative and union offices and most of the houses of the original settlers are situated.– Antonieta Lopez