Wednesday, March 21, 2007 4 farmers bolt TF Mapalad, rejoin Malaga workers’ group By Erwin Ambo S. Delilan, Ma. Ester L. Espina and Nicolas C. Delfin
* They say their change of heart and joining of the administration group is for the sake of peace in their hacienda and for their children’s future
* More TF Mapalad farmers expected to follow suit, says Rogelio Tupas Jr., currently president of Malaga Independent Workers Union
* Administration workers, however, were disgusted of several Catholic bishops who signed a manifesto of support for TF Mapalad. The farmers believed that the bishops, except for the four in Negros Island, were duped by TF Mapalad
TIRED and exhausted of “waiting for nothing,” four Task Force Mapalad farmers in the contentious Hacienda Velez-Malaga in La Castellana town bolted Tuesday from TF Mapalad and joined the administration workers.
The four were Ronaldo Mangaling, Catalino Helario, Rolando Ardiana and Gina Villagracia.
They also called on to their fellow TF Mapalad farmers to go back now to the fold of hacienda administration so they will have peace in the hacienda.
“We’re tired. It’s so complicated. We want peace. I want to work now for the future of my kids,” stressed Ardiana during a press conference held at the Business Inn in Bacolod City Tuesday morning.
“I want peace for my family. And I want to work now to send my children to school,” added Villagracia, who is now a widower.
Rodolfo Tupas, president of the Hacienda Malaga Independent Workers Union and the Hacienda Malaga-Cuenca Multi-Purpose Cooperative, said, “Another prayers of ours answered.”
“Little by little we are cured from headache,” he added.
The four TF Mapalad farmers also told reporters, “After all, we realized that we have nothing to gain if we join TF Mapalad as we also realized that we and our children still have future if we go back to the group of administration workers who are also our very own relatives.”
Ardiana added that his “decision to rejoin the administration group is for the sake of my wife who is always nervous every time TF Mapalad will move to install us. She doesn’t know what to do as she fears that there might be something bad will happen again.”
With their transfer to the administration group, TFM is left with only 98 farmers from its 122 farmer-beneficiaries who were given Certificate of Land Ownership Awards (CLOAs) for the 144 hectares lot within the Cuenca estate in Hacienda Velez-Malaga.
“But we are expecting more to rejoin us,” Tupas projected.
“At least we are happy that little by little they are enlightened of the truth,” he added.
Tupas said under the administration group, farmers avail of retirement benefits for their 20 years of service. Beyond 20 years, they can avail of another benefit equivalent to their five days salaries and wages.
They also enjoy hospitalization benefits as well dividends from the gross income of the hacienda every year.
On top of all these, their children can also be scholars of the hacienda if they wish to study from elementary to college.
At present, Tupas said their hacienda has about 180 scholars not just in Bacolod City and other parts of Negros but also in Iloilo and Manila.
That’s why we are fighting for this land not to be intruded by “imported farmers” not for our sake but for the sake of our children, stressed Tupas.
Bishops dared
On the other hand, Tupas’ groups also dared the Catholic Church’ hierarchy on Tuesday to come to Negros Occidental and see the truth.
This as Tupas and the rest of the farmer-beneficiaries belonging to the administration group were disappointed by reports that some of the Catholic bishops from other places had thrown their support to the TF Mapalad farmers.
While the four Negros prelates that Vicente Navarra of the Diocese of Bacolod, Patricio Buzon of Kabankalan, John Diu of Dumaguete and Jose Advincula of San Carlos have not signed the statement of support.
They also refrained from issuing any statement.
In fact, Buzon offered to have a dialog with the TF Mapalad and Malaga farmers, but TFM rejected the bishop’s call for a peaceful meeting.
This saddened Rep. Ignacio “Iggy” Arroyo Jr. and Gov. Joseph Marańon who also called on for the review of the real intention of TF Mapalad.
In a paid advertisement by TF Mapalad published in a national daily Tuesday church officials including Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) chairman Angel Lagdameo and Archbishops Ramon Arguelles and Antonio Ledesma, among others, signed a manifesto of support for the immediate installation of TFM farmers in Hacienda Velez-Malaga.
“What could have been a victory for management workers with the defection of four TF Mapalad members who opted to rejoin the union was clouded by the full page print ad which seeks among others President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s intervention to install the TFM hunger strikers and the resignation of Agrarian Reform Secretary Nasser Pangandaman.
Thus, Tupas challenged Tuesday the prelates to come to Negros Occidental and find out for themselves what is truly happening and whether TFM is telling them the truth.
“We are disappointed and hurt that the bishops signed the ad and we believe they were duped again by TF Mapalad,” Tupas said, adding that they are “sorrier that we cannot afford a full page ad to counter it.”
Union spokesperson Romulo Espinosa also dared the Church hierarchy to discern well saying, “isn’t it ironic that Negros bishops didn’t sign the ad? I guess because the Church officials here know the truth better.”
Espinosa was referring to the rejection of TF Mapalad for a dialog between farmer beneficiaries from their camp and that of management which was facilitated by Kabankalan Bishop Buzon for a supposed peaceful solution.
Tupas added that the bishops should see beyond what TF Mapalad is portraying in Manila through their hunger strike.
“We all want peace and justice. How come they rejected that offer? And now, the other bishops are siding with them (TFM)? Is justice only for TFM? What about us?”
Peaceful solution
Meanwhile, several groups belonging to the Coalition of Agrarian Reform Beneficiaries and Initiative for Negros Empowerment (Carbine) on Tuesday also called on for a peaceful solution in Hacienda Velez-Malaga.
In a separate press conference held at the Negros Press Club Tuesday, the pro-agrarian reform groups expressed sympathy with the right of the CLOA holders in Hacienda Velez-Malaga.
Carbine chairman Editha Tagon said, “We just wanted to prevent stand-off or an impasse in the land property owned by Roberto Cuenca. But moreover, we wanted to have a peaceful resolution now wherein all the rights of all the farmer-beneficiaries be given due consideration.”
Tagon is amenable on the proposal for a fact-finding to be conducted by the civil society and the church to probe the Velez-Malaga conflict between TF Mapalad and the administration workers.
They also want the fact-finding team to listen to both sides.
“After all, what we want here is for the Carp beneficiaries be respected of their rights and not to be discriminated,” she said.
Tagon also appealed to the government to continue with the agrarian reform program in promoting social justice and equity which encompasses the sound agricultural development and rural industrialization for the benefit people in the farmlands that are not benefiting from the agrarian reform.
On the other hand, Joel Alabar, convenor of Genuine Agrarian Reform Advocates for Negros Development (Garand), said the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) needs to respect and implement the framework of the Carp program of providing land to the tillers rather than giving land to the landless.
“We are asking for the DAR to accelerate the program and recalibrate the Carp program now and beyond,” he said.
“We do respect the rights of the farmer-beneficiary especially those have already the CLOAs affiliated to the TF Mapalad and from the administration side but we believed that the DAR should review and implement the program’s technicalities for its betterment.
