Negros Occidental Gov. Joseph Marañon yesterday asked why Task Force Mapalad was answering for the top Department of Agrarian Reform officials whom he has asked the President to investigate.

Are the TFM people the official spokespersons for these top DAR officials? he asked.

Marañon was reacting to a TFM statement Friday slamming him for calling on the Office of President to look into complaints of local DAR employees against their top national officials.

It is my duty as governor to inform the president of complaints of national agency employees against their officials, he said.

Their grievances are serious and must be properly investigated, he added.

The governor, in a letter to the President Friday, sent her copies of the position papers of the United MARO's Association of Negros Occidental and the Department of Agrarian Reform Rank and File Employees Union.

"We find the revelations relative to the undue favors being extended to Task Force Mapalad members by the DAR leadership very alarming. Thus we are respectfully requesting that a formal investigation be conducted to address the various issues raised by the employees," he said in his letter to the President.

He pointed out that the installations of TFM members as agrarian reform beneficiaries are often marred by violence and in some instances death.

"This is simply due to the unusual manner by which they were undertaken, unlike in other cases where consultations and dialog among stakeholders and local government officials are held prior to actual land distribution," Marañon said. Marañon also endorsed to the President a memorandum of agreement he proposed as early as 2003 that would ensure orderly and peaceful implementation of agrarian reform in Negros Occidental, he said.

The governor said he believes the president's intervention will put an end to the never-ending conflict between the DAR and agrarian reform beneficiaries in Negros Occidental.

UMANO president Victor Montalvo had furnished the governor a manifesto to solicit his support regarding the "obvious favoritism of Undersecretary Narciso Nieto and other DAR high officials with the TFM to the disadvantage of the DAR personnel and other NGOs and POs who advocate the agrarian reform program."

If left to the MAROs, the CARP implementation in Negros Occidental would be fairer and non-violent, Montalvo wrote the governor.

However. Montalvo told the governor, TFM was dictating to DAR higher officials what to do and agrarian violence occurs every time TFM is involved.

"It is in this light that we are requesting your intervention and help," Montalvo added.*CPG

back to top