THE TASK Force Mapalad (TFM) national peasant organization hails
the PNP Regional Mobile Group (PNP-RMG) for its May 29 arrest and
detention of goons of the Lizares-Lopez Development Corporation in
Sagay City, Negros Occidental for possession of unlicensed firearms.
For us, the recent arrest is a sweet triumph in the unfinished road
to our claim to our land, the 90-hectare Hacienda Sto. Rosario. Our
victory would be more meaningful only if the Department of Agrarian
Reform (DAR), the supposed main implementer of agrarian reform and
the provincial PNP led by senior superintendent Vicente Ponteras would
do their jobs to enforce real agrarian reform in our lands and protect
us from clear and present danger from former landowners such as the
Lizarez-Lopez firm.
On the evening of May 29, Thursday, PNP RMG elements led by Captain
Jayperson Discallar confiscated three 12-guage shotguns, one .38-calibre
revolver, one .22-calibre revolver, one .357-calibre revolver, one
bolo (sundang), and one pair of arrow (pana) from six men identified
with the former landowner. Arrested and detained for illegal possession
of firearms at the PNP Sagay were goons Rodolfo Alvarez and Bobby
Juu-a, threesecurity guards and another farm worker loyal to the Lizares-Lopez
firm.
We are saddened that DAR under Secretary Obet Pagdanganan and the
provincial PNP are apparently helpless to stop the former landowner's
resistance to our claim to our lands. In November last year, some
of our members' houses were demolished. Last March 13, CLOA holder
Ruben Canoy Jr. was ambushed and shot at by goons of the former landowner
(including Alvarez); until now, he is yet to recover from the gunshot
wounds in the head and is feared to worsen. Goons continue to lurk
near our land, like the ones recently arrested.
We are dismayed that DAR opts for short-term, sporadic and reactionary
strategies—installing farmers in a voluntarily offered land,
repeated moves to disperse TFM farmers holding camp at the DAR National
Office in Manila for a month now, and misleading the public that it
has installed farmers in other TFM Negros haciendas Conchita Villanueva
and Mulawin—that further confirm our worries that Pagdanganan
is only up for building his image to win more votes next year.
We are dismayed that Ponteras tags farmer beneficiaries as subversives
to cover up his failure to protect them from harassment of influential
landowners resisting agrarian reform.
Pagdanganan still has a year to stay in DAR. With this, we appeal
to Pagdanganan to use his time wisely by implementing genuine agrarian
reform in contentious areas such as those formerly owned by the Benedictos,
Cuencas, Villanuevas, Gustilos, Lopezes, Lizareses, among others.
We have done our part by strengthening our ranks to legally claim
our lands. Seeing the DAR under Pagdanganan finally make agrarian
reform happen in these lands for which we have fought for years would
make CARP worth celebrating for this year.
