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Tuesday, November 18, 2003
Be fair in Carl enforcement, farmer beneficiaries urge Dar
By Clara Mae Hortelano˙
AGRARIAN Reform beneficiaries in Hda. Carmenchika, La Carlota City urged anew the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR)-Negros Occidental to be fair in the enforcement of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Law (Carl) in the province.
Nineteen beneficiaries alleged that DAR failed to award each of them their two-hectare farm lot even after Agrarian Reform Sec. Roberto Pagdanganan installed them to the land owned by the heirs of former Ambassador Roberto Benedicto last July.
Exsur Bardeloza, member of the Ugnayan ng mga Magsasakang Agraryo (Umma), said Pagdanganan assured them that the lot will be awarded to them as stated in their Certificates of Land Ownership Award (Cloa).
However, Bardeloza said each beneficiary was given only a 1.3- hectare farm lot, not the two-hectare property the agrarian secretary promised them.
Since the day they were installed, Bardeloza said they had been cultivating the farm lot.
He added that the problem cropped up only when they were about to harvest the sugarcane crops and palay plantation. It was at this point when the farm management came up with a Memorandum of Agreement canceling their Cloas, and the issuance of another Cloa awarding each beneficiary only 1.3 hectare of farm lots.
Forced to sign
Bardeloza further said the management forced them to affix their signatures in the new MOA, which provides that only after they have signed the document could they avail of the lots and the produce.
When they were about to harvest their crops in the last week of October, said Bardeloza, pro-management agrarian reform beneficiaries, led by Ed Alonza, harassed them and prevented them from taking the fruits of their labor.
He said they even have to request assistance from troopers of the Regional Mobile Group to secure their area.
"We find all of these as injustice. In the first place these farm lots were already awarded to us by DAR-national office and these are our own. The management shouldn't have any control over the land anymore," said Bardeloza in vernacular.
He added, "We were thinking all along that the lands are already our own, but with this situation, it's like our lives are again at stake-just like before."
Bardeloza further noted that some provisions in the MOA are unjust and unfair to the farmers.
(November 18, 2003 issue)
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