LA CASTELLANA -- Members of the Malaga Cuenca Multi-Purpose Cooperative are seeking dialogs with provincial agrarian reform officers and Gov. Joseph Marañon today to oppose the manner in which the land in Hacienda Velez-Malaga in Barangay Robles here, was divided among beneficiaries of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program.

They are asking for a review of the Certificates of Land Ownership Awards issued by the Department of Agrarian Reform.

DAR Secretary Nasser Pangandaman yesterday reiterated that the DAR will install 122 agrarian reform beneficiaries on 144 hectares in Hacienda Velez-Malaga this week.

The conflict appears to stem from the manner in which the DAR divided the property of sugar planter Roberto Cuenca among workers allied with him who are members of the Malaga Cuenca Multi-Purpose Cooperative, and those who are members of Task Force Mapalad. The DAR issued a Certificate of Land Ownership Award granting 144.4 hectares of the Cuenca property identified as lot 852 to 122 farmer beneficiaries, 102 of whom are members of TFM while the 20 are associated with the pro-Cuenca group.

The 198 cooperative members were granted land on lot 851-E covering 301.3 hectares.

The members of the coop insist that they are the original tillers of the land, unlike many of those who are members of TFM. They claim it is unjust that inspite of their being the original tillers of the land, the DAR awarded the 144 hectares of prime land near the road and where their houses are located to the TFM beneficiaries, while they were awarded land much farther away. The TFM members on the other hand insist that since the 144 has. had already been awarded to them DAR must make good its promise.

TFM deputy coordinator Lani Factor said it was not TFM, it was the DAR who identified the beneficiaries and the areas to be awarded to them. Cuenca is no longer the owner of the 144 hectares in question, it has become property of the farmer beneficiaries after it was awarded to them by the DAR, she said.

In April 2002, the DAR had issued the collective CLOA for 144 hectares of the property in the name of 122 ARBs, Factor said. But except for fields 74 and 75 of lot 852 consisting of more than 10 hectares that the TFM members forcibly occupied in October 2002, the rest of the property has yet to be awarded to the beneficiaries.

Romeo Caram, 53, a member of the cooperative associated with Cuenca, told the DAILY STAR he was born in Hacienda Velez-Malaga and he and his companions will oppose the entry of the TFM members into the 144 hectares.

"This is our place, this is where our homes are, this is where our livelihood is," he said. Also located in the 144 hectare area is a day care center and elementary school for children of the farm workers.

Many of us were born here, we will not leave this area, we will defend this area from their entry, Caram said, referring to the TFM members.

Roger Miravalles, 58, of the Malaga Independent Workers Union, asked why the DAR gave all the good land to the TFM members and left the rest of the farmers with land far away from the road. This is an injustice committed by the DAR, he said.

He told the DAILY STAR that Cuenca had been a just landowner and had the interest of his farmers at heart. The farmers not only get paid for working on the farm, through their cooperative they are beneficiaries of profit-sharing on the gross sales of sugarcane from the farm, he said.

The workers, have had close to a P1 million share on the gross sales, and their children have been recipients of scholarships granted by Cuenca, he said.

He said Cuenca has 158 scholars who are children of the workers from elementary to college, some of whom have become policemen, teachers, secretaries and nurses.

His two children who are scholars of Cuenca are studying at Central Philippines University in Iloilo, one taking a software engineering course and the other chemical engineering. We are at a disadvantage because we are here on the farm so only the voices of the TFM people are being heard as they know how go to media who only hears one side of the story, he said.

He said the TFM people stage gimmicks, including parading their dead.

What kind of social justice is this where only the TFM benefits, what about our union and coop members? he asked.

Rodolfo Tupas Sr. 54, said the members of the coop are defending their right to the land, too, and will resist the TFM entry.

The way I see it the TFM people are dictating to the DAR what to do, but they must recognize our rights too, he said.

Farm administrator Pedro Ogatis, 45, told the DAILY STAR that if the TFM people only agreed to a win-win solution by agreeing to settle in the land in the rear portion of the farm and allowing the coop members to stay where they are, even if they were installed tomorrow no conflict would arise.

He said contrary to the TFM claims, the land being offered them is productive and irrigated. Eduardo Nobleza, a tractor driver, said that through Cuenca's scholarship program his daughter is now a nursing student while another is taking a Hotel and Restaurant management course.

Living on the 10 hectare property forcibly taken over by TFM at the entrance of Hacienda Velez Malaga is Ludivico Hagucoy, 64, of TFM.

He said he did not know if the DAR would really make good its promise to install them.

Hagucoy said it would be nice if he could actually own the land given by the government. As a worker on the farm before CARP nothing happened that improved his life, he said.

We have a right to the land granted to us under the CLOA issued by DAR, we should be allowed to take over the land given to us, he said.

Ruben Demasuay of TFM said it is not true that they are not original tillers of the land. Cuenca disowned them because they signed up for land reform, he said.

It is the job of government to ensure their peaceful installation on the land given to them, Demasuay said.

As owners of their own land they are free from the dictates of the landowner, he said, and can decide their own destiny.*CPG

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