The Supreme Court has ordered Agrarian Reform Secretary Nasser Pangandaman and eight others to show cause why they should not be cited for contempt of court for the installation of Task Force Mapalad beneficiaries in Hacienda Velez Malaga, La Castellana, on March 22 despite a pending case.

Mario Diaz, lawyer of landowner Roberto Cuenca, said yesterday that the SC en banc, in a resolution dated June 5 but received by him on July 13, issued the order to Pangandaman, DAR Undersecretary Narciso Nieto, DAR Undersecretary Jeffrey Galan, DAR Regional Director Alexis Arsenal, former Provincial Agrarian Reform Officer Stephen Leonidas, PNP Regional Director Supt. Reynaldo Rafal, Col. Jess Manangquil - 11th Infantry Battalion commander, Senior Supt. Pedro Merced - 6th Regional Mobile Group commander, and La Castellana Police Chief Senior Inspector Regidor Alvarado. Diaz said the SC by taking cognizance of their motion for contempt, affirms their position that the conflict at Hacienda Velez Malaga may be best resolved by waiting for the final decision of the Supreme Court on the pending case docketed as GR. No. 174163.

15 PNP officers face
land reform related cases
BY GILBERT BAYORAN

Senior Supt. Pedro Merced, director of the 6th Regional Mobile Group, is now facing two complaints for serious neglect of duty before the PNP Directorate for Investigation and Detective Management.

Merced had assisted the Department of Agrarian Reform in the installation of 53 agrarian reform beneficiaries affiliated with Task Force Mapalad on March 22 in the controversial Hacienda Velez- Malaga property in La Castellana, Ironically, the TFM members his men had secured on March 22 are now the complainants in the administrative charges filed against him before DIDM, Merced said.

Merced is among the 15 police officers who are facing administrative and criminal charges, in connection with the implementation of agrarian reform program in Negros Occidental, police records show.

Reward up for info
on Esteban killing
BY PATRICK PANGILINAN

The family of Anthony Esteban, grandson of former Negros Occidental Vice Governor Gloria Araneta Esteban, whose body was found at the Bacolod Reclamation Area Sunday, is offering a P10,000 reward to anybody who can give them or the police information that will lead to the arrest of his killers.

This was relayed to the DAILY STAR yesterday by Esteban's brother-in-law, Nonoy Lopez. Esteban, 44, had succumbed to a lone stab wound on the chest and is believed to have been killed hours before he was found at 7 p.m.

Meanwhile, A 20-year-old construction worker wanted for robbery and murder was arrested and questioned by the police on the stabbing, the Police said yesterday.