Saturday, June 9, 2007

Where are the heads that would roll?

“Where are the heads that will roll?”

This was the question posed by the peasant federation Task Force Mapalad (TFM) to Agrarian Reform Secretary Nasser Pangandaman after some 25 farmers from Hacienda Velez-Malaga entered on June 7 the Department of Agrarian Reform provincial office in Bacolod City to protest what they said was the refusal of DAR legal officer Vicky Delgado to demarcate the boundaries of the 53 hectares where they were installed last March 22.

TFM president Jose Rodito Angeles said the farmers were angered by Delgado’s refusal to order the conduct of demarcation unless she talked to Senior Supt. Pedro Merced, chief of the 6th Provincial Regional Mobile Group (PRMG), which was responsible for maintaining peace and preventing violence inside the hacienda, located in Barangay Robles, La Castellana, Negros Occidental.

Merced, however, was nowhere to be found. He had made himself scarce after the shooting incident last June 4 inside the hacienda in which three security guards of former landowner Roberto Cuenca fired at some 50 farmer-beneficiaries, killing two and wounding six.

The farmers, however, said there was no need for Delgado to wait for Merced because she could ask the Philippine Army contingent in the area to assist.

They also said that the two-and-a-half months delay in the conduct of the survey was already unreasonable.

“We feel that Attorney Delgado was giving us a run around. She is just using Merced to further delay the demarcation of our land,” said Gregorio Paclibar, 70, president of the organization of farmer-beneficiaries in Velez-Malaga.

Angeles said the protesting farmers will stay inside the compound of the DAR provincial office until the 53 hectares are demarcated and fenced.

“Pangandaman should now fulfill his earlier promise, announced in the media, that heads would roll in the DAR provincial office if he found that provincial DAR officials had delayed the survey that he ordered to determine the boundary of the land granted to the farmer-beneficiaries.

Angeles said that instead of obeying Pangandaman’s order to conduct survey, provincial agrarian reform officer (PARO) Stephen Leonidas entered into a negotiation with former landowner Roberto Cuenca for reimbursement of the expenses on standing crops.

“PARO Leonidas had used this negotiation to prevent the farmer-beneficiaries from entering their land and to delay the conduct of survey,” he said.

“What right did PARO Leonidas have to negotiate with Cuenca on the standing crops? Did he act on his own or was he ordered to negotiate? If so, who gave him the order?,” Angeles asked.

Angeles further said that Leonidas tried to strike a deal with Cuenca to relocate the farmer-benefiaries from the 53 hectares to another portion of the hacienda.

“What right did PARO Leonidas have to strike such kind of deal with Cuenca behind the back of the farmer-beneficiaries?,” he asked.

Angeles said there was no point in negotiating for the standing crops because Cuenca had been ordered by DAR three times to stop cultivation of the 114 hectares already awarded to the farmer-beneficiaries.

“PARO Leonidas himself wrote one of the letters ordering Cuenca to stop cultivation. The two other letters were written by former PARO Felicidad Bañares and current Undersecretary for Field Operations Narciso Nieto. That Cuenca continued to cultivate the land was a violation of the DAR orders. He does not deserve to be reimbursed for the standing crops. He should be charged for violation of the DAR orders,” he said.

He further said that Leonidas, by giving the farmer-beneficiaries a run-around in their demand for the conduct of demarcation survey, created the situation that led to the bloody incident last June 4.

Angeles said Leonidas went missing shortly after the June 4 shooting incident inside the hacienda in which two farmer-beneficiaries were killed and six others were wounded.

“Secretary Pangandaman should take some action against PARO Leonidas. He should show that he is still in control of his people at the DAR provincial office,” Angeles said.

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