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By Ma. Ester L. Espina Correspondent
BACOLOD CITY: Negotiations to
attain a peaceful solution in Hacienda Velez-Malaga, La Castellana
town failed anew bringing about fears of agrarian reform violence
erupting again between members of Task Force Mapalad and the
management.
Presidential Adviser for Western
Visayas, Rafael Coscolluela and Bishop Patrick Buzon of the
Kabankalan Diocese expressed disappointment after their efforts to
intervene in the long-running dispute failed during negotiations
with both sides on Wednesday at the St. Vincent’s Parish Convent.
Mayor Alberto Nicor of La
Castellana also raised fears of continued violence after TFM
rejected the latest “generous offer” of the management side.
The negotiating panel led by
Coscolluela, Buzon, Nicor and Social Action chairman, Fr. Rolex
Nueva were able to convince management workers to allow the
inclusion of 47 TFM beneficiaries facing exclusion cases and
increase awarded land area from 53 hectares to 99 hectares as well
as dropping of all legal cases from all parties just so peace can be
finally attained.
TFM’s rejection has put in
question their motives of opting for an “unattainable solution,”
Nicor said, who walked out upon seeing no compromise can be
achieved. “They do not want a resolution, they want trouble,” he
added.
Bishop Buzon on the other hand
can’t help but ask TFM, “You are fighting for land, now land is
being given, why are you still looking for conflict?”
Coscolluela also said it is
“obvious now that it’s not land being fought here,” expressing
the same fears of continued violence which has claimed lives in more
than a decade of agrarian dispute.
He said the panel’s offer,
agreed upon by management was “very fair,” and promises to keep
peace in the community since TFM will be placed in one area and the
management workers tilling the other side.
However, TFM insists on the prime
land encompassing the hacienda proper where management workers have
been living.
“For as long as legal problems
remain unresolved and a final decision made, the debate and violence
will continue,” Coscolluela said.
He added that he will “appeal
for a status quo” pending the resolution of all cases, including
the impending installation of TFM farmers to clear three hectares
awarded to them for planting of corn.
The installation was stalled on
Monday after Coscolluela asked Department of Agrarian Reform
Secretary Nasser Pangandaman to allow the negotiators to finish
their dialog.
With the deadlock, Coscolluela
said that he hopes DAR will not pursue their plans “since there is
no urgent need to clear the fields” which currently is planted to
sugar cane by management workers and ready for harvest within a
couple of months.
TFM has been occupying a
10-hectare lot within the hacienda “and there are 7 hectares
within the area which they can utilize for planting corn if that is
their intention,” Coscolluela said.
He added that they will continue
to find solutions to the problem, saying “government must resolve
this peacefully for how can we pretend to resolve other problematic
areas when we cannot even solve one hacienda.”
Meanwhile, Romeo Caram of the
worker’s union warned that they will resist any clearing of the
fields if no compromise can be reached as to the status of the
standing crop since “management members have production sharing
and we sweated planting those crops. It is not fair that they will
just cut them down without any compensation.”
“We have agreed to the offer of
the panel even if some of our members were against it, all for
peace, yet TFM clearly just wants conflict,” he added.
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