Saturday, January 26, 2008 Grenade blast rocks agrarian reform office By Ma. Ester L. Espina
A BLAST, allegedly from a hand grenade, tore through the provincial office of the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) in Bacolod City at about 1:50 a.m. Thursday.
Police recovered from the crime scene a hand grenade safety lever, a pin, and shrapnel.
Farmer beneficiaries camping outside the DAR office told investigators they saw two men whose faces and heads were covered with towels throw something towards the compound before the blast.The two were on a red motorcycle.
Provincial Agrarian Reform officer Teresita Depeñoso who was staying inside the compound but was unhurt said they suspect that anti-Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (Carp) advocates are behind the blast.
Agrarian Reform Secretary Nasser Pangadaman condemned the incident, saying no amount of harassment and initimidation could stop government from implementing Carp.
He immediately asked the Bacolod City Police Office to conduct a full investigation of the incident. Bacolod City Police Chief Ronilo Quberar vowed to dig deeper into the incident.
Depeñoso said the incident, as it appeared, was meant to scare department officials and stall them from implementing the land reform program.
Depeñoso said they received an earlier report of some groups opposed to Carp having "hired sacadas to harass us."
Coincidentally, DAR was supposed to install Thursday a group of farmer beneficiaries at Hacienda Carmen Chica in Pontevedra, southern Negros Occidental, but failed due to reported resistance coming from farmer beneficiaries allied with management.
Majority of the members of the Workers Amalgamated Union of the Philippines (WAUP) in Carmen Chica, owned by the estate of former Ambassador Roberto S. Benedicto, barricaded the road towards the hacienda to prevent DAR from installing some 31 disgruntled WAUP members who have been camping outside the local DAR office.
Accompanied by troopers from the Regional Mobile Group and Provincial Mobile Group, DAR finally acceded to the request of Pontevedra Mayor Jose Maria Alonso to hold off the installation until after a dialogue with WAUP members.
Pangandaman agreed to the mayor's request, prompting military troopers to heave a sigh of relief. Col. Celestino Guarra, commanding officer of the 2nd Provincial Mobile Group, said they were glad the installation was stalled and urged all parties to settle their dispute in a peaceful manner.
"We don't want a repeat of Hacienda Malaga," Guarra said, referring to the La Castellana farm incident that led to several farmer beneficiaries getting killed. The dispute over land ended peacefully last year, however, after negotiations.
Alonso said he will personally mediate so there would be peaceful installation of all farmer beneficiaries "but not when tension and emotions are high," adding that he will see to it that all FBs would be present during the dialogue with DAR.
Alonso also appealed to DAR to comply with the provision of the MOA crafted by DAR and signed by all parties to attain a peaceful turnover of the land.
He was however cautious in pushing his position as he was the former farm administrator for the Benedictos before he was elected as mayor last year.
He also admitted that while he will mediate, he can only do so much and not come out "self-serving" because his brother, Edgardo Alonso, is the current farm manager of the hacienda.
Alonso meanwhile slammed DAR for its "inconsistencies. "This is sad because instead of being our law implementers, they have become violators," he said, referring to DAR personnel.
Ironically, the problem stems not from warring farmer beneficiaries but internally, when 31 WAUP members decided not to join 223 colleagues in a leaseback agreement with the Universal Equity Corp. represented by Kitchie Benedicto-Paulino.
The 31 demanded that DAR segregate the land and give them their own portion.
Out of the 868 hectares, 113 have already been given and tilled by other farmer groups belonging to Task Force Mapalad (TFM) and UMA while another 28 hectares were distributed to individual FBs who have no affiliation with farmer groups.
The remaining land belonged to WAUP who entered into a joint venture with the landowners until some disgruntled members decided to demand their own share.
WAUP majority members, however, said, they will not oppose the segregation of land but insist that DAR respects the MOA it has crafted, which includes the cancellation of the old CLOA and relocation of farmer beneficiaries to their designated areas, before it raffles off the lots to be fair to everyone.
"We will not allow DAR to just assign land to whoever they want to, it must be done fairly and without any partiality that's why we are for drawing of lots," Alonso said.
Meanwhile, Paulino, in a telephone interview, said she has not much to say except for DAR to "respect and implement the MOA."
