Tuesday, July 10, 2007 Leonidas was Pangandaman’s scapegoat: Umano By Ma. Ester L. Espina
STILL fuming from the hasty removal of former Provincial Agrarian Reform Officer Stephen Leonidas, the United Municipal Agrarian Reform Officers Association of Negros Occidental (Umano) once again slammed Agrarian Reform Secretary Nasser Pangandaman for making Leonidas “his scapegoat.”
Talisay Agrarian Officer Boy de los Santos, the Information Officer of Umano said they believe Pangandaman simply made “a scapegoat out of Leonidas for his own failure to implement Carp successfully in Hacienda Velez-Malaga in La Castellana town.”
He also slammed reports that the secretary would reinstate Leonidas after sometime as “childish.”
He added that while they know reshuffling is part of the process, “what happened to Leonidas smacked of disregard for any process and was done because of the obvious link of Task Force Mapalad with the central office.”
De los Santos said they are reiterating their demand for the ouster of Undersecretary Narciso Nieto, believing he is one of those who have “big links” and favoring TF Mapalad over other farmer organizations.
“It is very obvious that they are favoring TF Mapalad and in fact, in their last installation, resources of the provincial office has been used for their purpose,” he said, adding that this is the reason why they want an accounting of how much of DAR’s resources have been used solely for TFM’s activities.
De los Santos also said they will not back down from their earlier statements against TF Mapalad because “had it not for them, Carp implementation in Negros Occidental will be smooth and orderly.”
The police and other local government officials have noted that most agrarian-related violence usually involved the militant peasant group over other organizations and have repeatedly appealed to TF Mapalad to avoid instigating violence at the expense of their members’ lives.
Furthermore, de los Santos recounted the “power” TF Mapalad has over at the central office even at the expense of DAR employees.
He said sometime last year, the Municipal Agrarian Officers were taken aback when they learned that they will be joined by TF Mapalad members during their regular diagnostic examination at Sugarland Hotel.
“That was truly insulting and we demanded that the TF Mapalad will be removed from the room otherwise we will not take part in the exam,” said de los Santos, adding that this is the first time they are putting this out in public as they did not want to be accused of forum shopping before.
“It was the last straw and we believe the central office had a lot to do with that,” he said, saying that TF Mapalad “has had a habit of dropping Nieto’s name every time they want DAR to act on their request.”
The Umano had sent copies of their manifesto to the Office of the President and both Houses of Congress among others, hoping that their demands will be acted upon soon.
Ironically, only La Castellana Maro Nilda Salmorin failed to affix her signature to the petition.
