Be patient.

This was the repeated appeal of the police and the Department of Land Reform in response to renewed protests by Task Force Mapalad members who scored the government for what they claim to be a snail's pace implementation of agrarian reform in Negros Occidental.

On Monday, about 50 TFM members stormed the compound of the Provincial Agrarian Reform Office in Bacolod City, demanding their immediate installation in Hacienda Velez- Malaga in La Castellana.

Senior Supt. Charles Calima, provincial police director, said "we have to exhaust all peaceful means before going through with a forced installation".

"If we see there is going to be a trouble, we will try to ask for suspension, or delay in the installation based on our principle of what's the use of enforcing a law when in the process of enforcing it, more violations will be committed?" Calima added.

Provincial Agrarian Reform Officer 1 Gideon Yonque said TFM members have to observe due process because it is not only DLR that is involved in CARP program, but also the Land Bank of the Philippines, Department of Environment and Natural Resources, the Register of Deeds, among other government agencies.

He added that they are also working on the installation of farmer beneficiaries in several other landholdings, while others are still in the process of negotiating with landowners.

TFM-Negros president Rodito Angeles claimed that not only has the DLR proved itself negligent and incompetent, but it has actually reversed its mandate of distributing land to the tillers by helping landlords keep their hold on the properties that, he said, no longer belong to them.

Of the 246,463 hectares of land placed under the government agrarian reform program, DLR records show that 51,391 has already been distributed to 109,012 farmer beneficiaries in Negros Occidental as of January this year.

Yonque reiterated that DLR is open to dialogs anytime with TFM members. "But no matter what they will do, we will still abide with the policies and guidelines. There will be no short-cut", he stressed.*GPB

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