Gov. Joseph Marañon, officials of the Department of Agrarian Reform, the police, and landowners met yesterday to discuss measures to prevent violence in the implementation of land reform in Negros Occidental.

Marañon said a new Memorandum of Agreement among all stakeholders is being proposed to ensure the peaceful implementation of land reform in the province.

DAR Regional Director Alexis Arsenal said a landowners desk will be created so if there are problems the people there will be the ones we will contact to thresh out problems.

Provincial Agrarian Reform Officer Felicidad Bañares yesterday clarified that the total amount of property set to be covered by land reform in Negros Occidental is 246,463.9406 hectares, with 153,048.4 hectares distributed so far. The DAR has 83,693.6927 hectares more to cover, she said.

At the meeting at the Governor's Office yesterday aside from Marañon and Arsenal were Provincial Police Director Charles Calima, Dr. Ruditha Gustilo, wife of Farley Gustilo who is said to be the owner of Hacienda Cambuktot in La Castellana where an agrarian reform beneficiary was killed on May 17, her lawyer Roger Reyes and other landowners.

Arsenal said Hacienda Cambuktot had been foreclosed by the bank but the Gustilo's say they still are the owners of the property, because it is covered by Republic Act 7202 or the Sugar Restitution Law, which allows the landowner to recover the property.

We have to resolve the issue, Arsenal said.

If the property is covered by RA 7202 that foreclosure is invalid and there is a pending case on this issue before the Regional Trial Court of La Carlota, Reyes said.

Among the land reform beneficiaries of the Cambuktot property are the workers identified with Gustilo, Task Force Mapalad and the Buklurang ng Mangagawang Pilipino.

However, the Gustilos are questioning the status of some of the beneficiaries who are not listed as regular farmworkers, he said, which we are verifying, Arsenal said.

Calima asked the DAR to come up with reference points of areas allocated to different beneficiary-groups in Cambuktot to enable them to identify who are crossing into areas not allocated to them.

Reyes said the problem in Cambuktot is that the Gustilo family are entitled to harvest the standing crop on about 40 hectares of the farm even if the DAR is going to install beneficiaries already.

What has happened on the ground is that the members of TFM and BMP have insisted that they take over the entire hacienda including the standing crop, he said.

Under a MOA the Gustilos agreed to give TFM members a 17- hectare portion of the property to cultivate, now they want to get the cane of the Gustillos who are under the law entitled to harvest their last crop, Reyes said.

He also pointed out that the beneficiaries identified by the DAR for Cambuktot do not include all, there are 70 others also seeking inclusion.

The installation as far as the Gustilos is premature because the issue of who all the beneficiaries has not been resolves, he said.

Once that is resolved the Gustilo family is prepared to turn over the property to the DAR so the installation can be done in an orderly manner, he said.

The Gustilos are not opposed to the implementation of CARP in Cambuktot, what they are opposed to is that their other farm workers not included should be made beneficiaries, and those not qualified should be excluded, he said.

It was agreed yesterday that the DAR set a dialog with the TFM, BMP that we have to sit down and settle the issue on Tuesday, Reyes said.

Reyes said the DAR should not install beneficiaries on the basis of collective Certificate of Land Ownership Awards but on individual CLOAs to prevent violence.*CPG

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