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HERMOSA, Bataan: Echoing the cry “land for the
landless,” a group of settlers from Bataan and Pampanga set up
tents and occupied 87 hectares of more than 108 hectares of
sugarcane land of the Chu family.
The farmers, who belong to the
newly formed Santo Nino Settlers’ Association, in a message said
that 700 persons occupied the alleged abandoned land to nurture it.
Santo Nino is the first barangay
of Lubao in Pampanga after Balsik, the last barangay of Hermosa,
Bataan, in the boundary separating the two provinces.
The settlers came from the Bataan
towns of Hermosa and Dinalupihan and Lubao, Pampanga. They claimed
that Veronica Chu, allegedly the wife of one of the owners of the
hacienda, wanted the whole land for herself when the area was
declared available for distribution under the Comprehensive Agrarian
Reform Program since 1997.
They said Chu assisted by
security guards and police officers, on August 7 gave them four days
to vacate the land. To prevent any untoward incident, the farmers
called on President Arroyo to respond to their problem.
Dante Belleza, Barangay Agrarian
Reform Council chairman of Santo Niño, said of the 87 hectares
occupied by the settlers, 40 hectares belong to Pampanga and 47 to
Bataan.
Belleza charged the municipal
agrarian reform officer of Lubao for conniving with Veronica Chu in
using dummies in the issuance of certificate of land ownership award
to workers of Vina Feeds.
He said that under the Land
Reform Act, farmers from Santo Nino and nearby localities from
Bataan have the right to the land.
Belleza appealed to Mrs. Arroyo,
the Senate Committee on Agriculture and other agencies of government
in the implementation of land reform, to urge DAR to perform their
mandated task.
 --Ernie
B. Esconde
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