The Task Force Mapalad called anew for the distribution of the 157-hectare Hacienda Bacan in Brgy. Guintubhan, Isabela, claiming it has confirmed from the Department of Agrarian Reform that the property, owned by First Gentlemen Mike Arroyo, has no application for conversion.

TFM president Jose Rodito Angeles said in a press statement they have secured a certification dated Nov. 16, 2007 from the Center for Land Use Policy Planning and Implementation secretariat of DAR stating that “there is no pending application for conversion filed by Rivulet Agro-Industrial [Corp.] for Hacienda Bacan.”

But Rep. Ignacio Arroyo (Neg. Occ., 5 th District) said yesterday he is not aware of such a development.

“I don't know. I will check (it),” the solon told the DAILY STAR in a telephone interview.

Angeles, for their part, said the DAR should immediately resume the process of Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program in the property since its reclassification in 2005 from agricultural to agro-industrial uses was erroneous and invalid.

The municipal government of Isabela issued a resolution reclassifying the property and the provincial government of Negros Occidental upheld the resolution, but their act was invalid because they did not secure a certification from DAR that the property was not subject to CARP, he added.

Still, Arroyo said the TFM should give their family a break. After all, they have given up their fair share of lands, more than 1,000 hectares in Isabela and Binalbagan, he said, to the land reform program.

“Why zero in on the Arroyos? Give us a break,” he said.

Angeles said “the hasty move to reclassify the property was a tactic employed by the First Gentleman and his brother Arroyo to avoid the distribution of the property under CARP.”

TFM said that DAR records show Hacienda Bacan was voluntarily offered by the solon for sale under CARP in 2001, after President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo announced that she would distribute to tillers the Arroyo landholdings in Negros Occidental.

However, the CARP process in the hacienda was stalled after the Land Bank of the Philippines said that Rep. Arroyo was not authorized to make voluntary offer and refused to process the hacienda's claim folder because there was no voluntary offer to sell letter from Mike Arroyo, the TFM added.

Angeles said that the 68 farm workers who were claiming for distribution of the property had been waiting for the First Gentleman's VOS letter since 2002.*

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