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BACOLOD City: Farmer-beneficiaries of Hacienda
Velez-Malaga in Barangay Robles, La Castellana, Negros Occidental,
want the province’s agrarian reform officer fired for acts that
created the condition leading to the June 4 shooting incident in
which led to the death of two farmer-beneficiaries.
Jose Rodito Angeles, Task Force
Mapalad president, said Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR)
Secretary Nasser Pangandaman immediately relieve Stephen Leonidas
for entering into an unauthorized negotiation with former landowner
Roberto Cuenca.
He said the negotiation resulted
in a three-month delay in the conduct of a demarcation survey for
the 53 hectares where 57 CLOA (Certificate of Landownership Award)
were installed last March 22.
“Mr. Leonidas negotiated with
Cuenca for reimbursement of the latter’s expenses on the standing
crops. He kept telling the CLOA holders not to enter and cultivate
their land while the negotiation was going on,” Angeles said.
Leonidas could not be reached for
comment as of press time.
Angeles said the negotiation was
pointless because DAR had thrice ordered Cuenca to stop cultivation
of the 114 hectares already covered by the collective CLOA of the
122 farmer-beneficiaries belonging to the TFM-affiliated Hacienda
Velez-Malaga Agrarian Reform Beneficiaries Organization (HAVEMARBO).
“Mr. Leonidas himself wrote one
of the three stop-cultivation orders, but suddenly he was
negotiating with Cuenca on the standing crops when the DAR
secretary’s order to him was to immediate conduct the demarcation
survey after the March 22 installation,” Angeles said.
He said that when the CLOA
holders insisted on the demarcation survey after more than two
months of delay, Leonidas made himself scarce, that is why they
decided to enter their land on June 4.
However, when the
farmer-beneficiaries started to assemble and cultivate their land,
they were blocked by the Regional Mobile Group (RMG) and were told
that they would be arrested if they entered the area.
-- Panay News
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