The ownership of 13 hectares of land in Brgy. Kumalliskis, Salvador Benedicto being claimed by two families, had already been awarded to Conrado Abay by Judge Danilo Tenerife almost five years ago, police chief Leonardo Angcon said.

The ruling of Tenerife which was appealed by Noel Benedicto and Samuel Española who contested the ownership of land with the Abay family, was adopted by Judge Demosthenes Magallanes in 2003, police investigations show.

A year after, the Murcia-Salvador Benedicto Municipal Circuit Trial Courts issued a writ of demolition ordering the sheriff of Negros Occidental to demolish improvements erected by the Benedicto and Española families.

Despite the court orders, Angcon, in his report to Senior Supt. Charles Calima, provincial police director, said the Benedicto and Española families are still insisting on ownership of the land. Angcon said the Abay family even granted the request of two families to harvest the sugarcane they had planted before leaving the property. "They harvested their crops twice, yet the respondents insisted on owning the parcel of land", the police chief added.

The land conflict between Abay and the Espanola and Benedicto families led to a recent encounter between soldiers and armed group in Salvador Benedicto.

Military investigations show that armed men served as guards of "tapaseros" hired by the Abay family.*GPB

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