About P635,000 worth of sugarcane ready for harvest, went up in flames in the hotly-contested Hacienda Velez-Malaga property in Brgy. Robles, La Castellana, Wednesday, police said.

Senior Inspector Placido Composa, La Castellana police chief, yesterday said the fire gutted 6.28 hectares of sugarcane fields owned by Roberto Cuenca.

Composa said the fire was traced to the sugarcane farm of Vicente Buenafe in Brgy. Camandag, and quickly spread to the adjacent farm of Cuenca in Brgy. Robles, after firefighters failed to control the flames.

The fire took place almost two weeks after Task Force Mapalad members and security guards hired by Cuenca allegedly traded shots, that caused injuries to four. This was followed by the killing of TFM member Pepito Santillan the next day, police records show.

Composa said they are coordinating with probers of the Bureau of Fire and Protection to determine the real origin of fire.

Estimated damage to the farm of Buenafe was initially placed at P135,000.

Meanwhile, Gregorio Paclibar, president of the Hacienda Velez-Malaga Agrarian Reform Beneficiaries Organization, claimed that Cuenca has turned Hacienda Velez-Malaga into a "virtual garrison", as security guards had put up sand bags and a fox hole at its entrance.

This has led to the restriction of ingress and egress of the 122 farmer beneficiaries whose families are now getting hungry, Paclibar said in a statement from the TFM.

It also claimed that a kilometer away from the sand bags and a fox hole, six armed civilians wearing bonnets and carrying long firearms watch over the 10 hectares occupied by their members, and that another group of armed men also conduct patrols in the area.*GPB

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