The Genuine Agrarian Reform Advocates for Negros Development and Coalition of Agrarian Reform Beneficiaries and Initiative for Negros Empowerment said the Department of Agrarian Reform is failing in its mandate to resolve land distribution conflicts, and is using outgoing PARO Stephen Leonidas as a sacrificial lamb.

In a joint press conference yesterday, GARAND and CARBINE officers said transferring Leonidas from Negros to Iloilo is not the solution to the problem. They said the agrarian reform problem in Hacienda Velez-Malaga can be solved only if the government and the DAR will exercise its police power and authority in dealing with the resisting landowners.

Ben Ramos of GARAND said local government units, mostly dominated by landowners themselves, are biased against the implementation of the agrarian reform.

He said the call for review or reassessment of the program is no longer needed as there is nothing to review. The move will only favor the landowners who are resisting CARP implementation, he said.

Enrique Tayo of CARBINE said the relief of Leonidas is another delaying tactic of DAR in distributing the lands to the farmer-beneficiaries. The two groups said that they are not siding with Leonidas but they perceive his transfer from Negros as an effort to appease the farmers' beneficiaries and to absolve the DAR national leadership of its indecisiveness and incompetence.*NAB

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