Sunday, August 27, 2006
2 agriculture officers face graft raps
By Victor L. Camion
A GROUP of farmers filed graft charges against the municipal agrarian reform officers (Maro) of Basay and Sta. Catalina before the Ombudsman-Visayas.
The two Maros were sued for allegedly rejecting the real beneficiaries of a public land in Sitio San Vicente, Barangay San Miguel, Sta. Catalina.
Complainants Daniel Ogario, Arconcesion Casil, Alberto Casil, Felix Toquero, Evelyn Sienes, Victoria Toquero, and Saturnino Marcos, all of Sta. Catalina town charged Winnie M. Tag-at and Ramonina F. Ruelo for allegedly violating the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act and the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Law.
Tag-at is the Maro of Basay and while Ruelo holds the same position for Sta. Catalina.
The farmers, in their joint complaint-affidavit, claimed that they occupied and farmed the San Vicente land for the last 20 years but that Tag-at ignored their position when she directed a survey of the property in 1993 without their knowledge and consent.
Alfreda Maceren, then regional action officer for the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program in Cebu City, approved the survey on September 8, 1993 as a subdivision plan of the heirs of Benigno Mamigo, leaving them "in the cold," the complainants said.
After the initial setback, the complainants said they requested Ruelo, who took over as Maro of Sta. Catalina after Tag-at, for a re-survey but she allegedly refused for unknown reason.
"Ruelo in her letter to the OIC Paro II of Negros Oriental, dated August 29, 2000, suggested not to conduct a re-survey of the lot unless it is through the Order of the Court because it will just make things more complicated," the farmers claimed.
The complainants said Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) Executive Director Percival C. Dalugdog, in a memorandum, ordered the Provincial Agrarian Reform Officer (PARO) of Negros Oriental to re-survey the property after Ogario wrote the DAR head office.
With no choice, they said, Ruelo made the relocation survey.
But, the farmers said that in Ruelo's investigation report, comments and recommendations, she allegedly made Ogario as the villain and underscored that the complainants were not occupants or possessors of the land.
Meanwhile, Virginia Palanca-Santiago, OIC-Deputy Ombudsman for Visayas endorsed the complaint to DAR regional director Datu Yusoph Mama and forwarded the case to DAR Resident Ombudsman Esther Nadela for action.
The complainants said they were optimistic the Ombudsman would give justice to their concern.
(August 27, 2006 issue)
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