Monday, January 29, 2007 'Killings mean funding' By Erwin Ambo S. Delilan
IF OTHERS condemn and lament on the killing of some agrarian reform program beneficiaries in Negros, this is not so for Task Force Mapalad (TFM), said Alab Katipunan (AK) Secretary General Ben Solilapsi.
"They (TFM) are perhaps rejoicing for it will mean additional funding for them," he added.
Solilapsi told mediamen that the more there are reports of the killing of TFM members in pursuit of land ownership, the more funding will come from ECO, a funding agency from The Netherlands that supports TFM.
He claimed though that the AK is also a group of peasants that condemned the killing of farmer-beneficiary Pepito Santillan and the wounding of two others in Hacienda Velez-Malaga, Barangay Robles, La Castellana town Wednesday last week.
"The AK blamed TFM for instigating violence in the area by doing a "self-installation" of 122 farmer-beneficiaries in the 144-hectare contentious area within the hacienda without any order from the Department of Agrarian Reform," Solilapsi said.
Santillan, according to TFM records, is the tenth FB in Negros whose violent death is linked to CARP.
Last year, four TFM leaders were also gunned down in Negros. These include Wilfredo Cornea of Hacienda Mulawin, Sagay City; Mario Domingo of Hacienda Cambuktot, Barangay Mansalanao, La Castellana; Porferio Maglasang Sr. of Sitio Caraan, Barangay Tampalon, Kabankalan City and Rico Adeva of Barangay Bagtic, Silay City.
Cornea was the vice-chairman of the Mulaba-Mulawin-Lanatan Agrarian Reform Beneficiaries Association, a group affiliated with TFM-Sagay. He was killed on June 26, 2006.
Domingo, on the other hand, was the president of the Hacienda Cambuktot Agrarian Reform Beneficiaries Association (Hacarba). He was gunned down on May 17, 2006.
His alleged perpetrators include Romulo Ellano and Eduardo Semillano, both employees of sugar planter Farley Gustilo, a former landowner of a contested land awarded to Domingo's group.
Maglasang was the chairperson of the Kabankalan chapter of the National Federation of Free Farmers (Pambansang Katipunan ng Malayang Magbubukid - PKKM), a group that is also affiliated with TFM-Negros. He was killed at a chapel near his house in Sitio Caraan, Barangay Tampalon, Kabankalan City on April 22, 2006.
Adeva was a former TFM labor organizer in the Talisay-Silay area. He was shot dead by alleged members of the breakaway Revolutionary Proletarian Army-Alex Bongcayao Brigade (RPA-ABB) at Hacienda Fuego II, Barangay Bagtic, Silay City on April 15, 2006.
In the case of Adeva, Solilapsi said TFM got P60,000 from a certain Undersecretary Nieto of DAR.
In 2004, Teresita Mameng, 59, also a former member of TFM was shot dead on Sept. 3. The suspects were the alleged blue guards in Hacienda Conchita Villanueva in Barangay Sag-ang also in La Castellana.
Mameng's cadaver was paraded in Bacolod City before it was laid down at La Castellana Public Cemetery.
Mission to help
Solilapsi said AK is a group that is also for the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program group whose mission is to help farmers acquire lands through Carp.
"But it is our stand to always respect the law and wait for official order from DAR for the official installation of our farmer-members who already have the Certificate of Land Ownership Awards to avoid (problems)," he said.
In the case of TFM, Solilapsi said, its organizers are always rushing everything just to have an accomplishment at the expense of some innocent farmer-beneficiaries.
"If they (TFM leaders) will only abide by the law, there will be no violence, no shooting and no killings," he stressed.
Bully, no respect
Also during the press conference, Nelly Villado, president of the Movement for Agrarian and Rural Advancement (Mara), said TFM organizers are known to be pugoso (bully) and have no respect for the law or any agreement between the FBs and landowners.
"As far as I am concerned, I know that TFM organizers are mandated to provoke violence or they will have no salary or allowance as part of the group's "No accomplishment, No salary" standard policy," she disclosed.
Saul Casiple, secretary general of Kongreso ng Pagkakaisa ng Maralita sa Kanayunan (Kanayunan), also claimed that TFM is simply engaging in "underground movement."
He said TFM should guide its farmer-members and not instigate them to force entry to contentious areas or those sites that are being contested in court.
Casiple scored the National Government though for its laxity in providing FBs the basic support services.
He also blamed Land Bank of the Philippines (LBP) for being slow in the release of payments to the landowners that resulted now to conflict between the FBs and landowners.
Bloods year
La Castellana Mayor Enrico Elumba earlier said he's already tired of minding the numerous Carp problems in his town.
Negros Occidental Police Provincial Director Rosendo Franco expressed the same thought.
Elumba is calling on Congress to immediately move for the review of the entire Carp law to avoid killings in the farms.
Solilapsi claimed that from this year to June 2008, when the Carp expires, will be a bloody period. The TFM, he alleged, will do everything to speed up the installation of its FBs in Negros.
"And TFM is ready to face the resisting landowners," he added.
Some landowners in Negros and local government officials appealed to both Malacañang and Congress to immediately audit the implementation of Carp as well as the total review of Carp law.
Other Negros mayors also demanded for the total abolition of CARP in the country. They claimed Carp only caused great reduction in their land tax collection because some of the FBs cannot afford to pay their taxes anymore.
