Lack of troops to prevent a possible clash between the rival groups of agrarian reform beneficiaries in Hacienda Velez-Malaga in La Castellana on Thursday, led to the cancellation of the installation of the Task Force Mapalad affiliated farmer beneficiaries, town police chief Placido Composa said yesterday.

Composa, La Castellana police chief, said he and Provincial Agrarian Reform Officer Stephen Leonidas had decided to postpone the installation of TFM members to a later date.

However, TFM president Jose Rodito Angeles, in a statement, said they felt betrayed by the last minute decision of DAR Secretary Nasser Pangandaman to cancel their installation on Dec. 7.

They also claimed that Rep. Ignacio "Iggy" Arroyo (Neg. Occ., 5th district) had "a direct hand" in the failed installation.

In another statement yesterday, the group said workers of hacienda owner Roberto Cuenca "were taunting the farmer-beneficiaries that the installation will not push through because Cuenca had called up Arroyo, who in turn had called up DAR Secretary Nasser Pangandaman to ask him to stop the installation."

Arroyo, however, called the TFM's allegation preposterous.

"I had nothing to do with it. I was in Manila busy with the (deliberations on the) Constituent Assembly. How can I be a party to that?" he told the DAILY STAR in a telephone interview.

Arroyo said that he never talked to Pangandaman about the Hacienda Velez-Malaga installation.

Aurelio Lacson, Arroyo's congressional consultant for agrarian concerns, said the TFM's claim is "pure and simple allegation and without basis in truth and in fact."

TFM earlier said that Pangandaman had issued on September an order for DAR Undersecretary for Field Operations Narciso Nieto to proceed with the installation of farmer-beneficiaries in Hacienda Velez-Malaga.

The 446-hectare Hacienda Velez- Malaga in Barangay Robles, La Castellana is owned by sugar planter Roberto Cuenca.

For the past 10 years, TFM had claimed that Cuenca resisting the redistribution of said property through court injunctions, which DAR and farmer beneficiaries said were in violation of Sections 55 and 68 of R.A. 6657.

TFM members sought an audience with Senior Supt. Rosendo Franco on Thursday to seek police assistance in their installation at the disputed hacienda property.

Franco who accompanied Dangerous Drug Board Secretary Anselmo Avenido at a drug forum in Victorias City, tasked his deputy, Supt. Flomar Natuel, to listen to their concerns.

The Hacienda Velez-Malaga in La Castellana has been identified by DAR and police as among the 21 agrarian reform "hotspots" in Negros Occidental.

TFM claimed that their members were outnumbered by the blue guards and hacienda workers of Cuenca, when they were supposedly to be installed by DAR on Thursday.

Police Director Wilfredo Garcia, in his memorandum, earlier ordered greater police presence in the contentious haciendas of the province.*GPB/NLG

back to top