The lawyer of landowner Roberto Cuenca yesterday warned that legal action will be taken against Agrarian Reform Secretary Nasser Pangandaman if he insists on installing 122 farmer beneficiaries on 144 hectares in Hacienda Velez-Malaga in Barangay Robles, La Castellana, today.

But Pangandaman yesterday told the DAILY STAR the DAR will definitely go ahead with the installation as there are no longer any legal impediments, contrary to the claim of the lawyer.

Panagandaman refused to divulge when the installation will be but a source said he is arriving in Negros this morning to oversee the installation of the Task Force Mapalad farmer-beneficiaries.

Mario Diaz, counsel of Cuenca, said in a letter to Pangandaman, "We urge you to reconsider your course of action, otherwise we shall not hesitate to bear on you the full force of the law which you, as a public servant, are duty bound to follow and observe."

Diaz pointed out that the Regional Trial Court of La Carlota on Jan. 4, 2002 issued a writ of preliminary injunction in Civil Case No. 503 ordering the DAR to cease and desist from implementing the installation.

The injunctive writ remains in full force and effect up to the present, Diaz said.

"Should you persist with your illegal, defiant and baseless action, you are deemed to have knowingly and willfully violated the legal order of the court, which is tantamount to contempt of court and is punishable by imprisonment by existing laws," Diaz said.

He also told Pangandaman that the issuance of the writ of preliminary injunction and the subsequent cancellation of the Certificate of Land Ownership Awards over the Cuenca properties are subject matters still pending before the Supreme Court.

It is proper that Pangandaman forego his intention to install farmer beneficiaries until the SC finally renders a decision on the case, he said.

But Pangandaman said that, contrary to the claim of Diaz, there is no longer any legal impediment to the installation.

That, he said, is because the Supreme Court has ruled that the lower court has no jurisdiction over agrarian reform cases.

Therefore, he said the injunction and the cancellation of the CLOAs cited by Diaz are void, he said.

TFM CHALLENGE

Meanwhile, TFM in a statement sent by Lani Factor challenged Cuenca to show proof that some of the farmer-beneficiaries of Hacienda Velez-Malaga are illegitimate.

TFM president Jose Rodito Angeles was quoted in the statement as saying that more than one year after Cuenca and his farm workers filed before the DAR Region VI a petition for exclusion of 77 farmer-beneficiaries, they have not produced a single proof to prove their allegations.

Angeles said that the issue is already moot and academic because DAR Region VI had already issued an order on February 12 rejecting their petitions for exclusion.

He said DAR rejected their petition because they had not been able to provide evidence.

Non-TFM farm workers at Hacienda Velez-Malaga are opposing the planned DAR installation on the 144 hectares and are set to stage a prayer rally this morning.

They have slammed the DAR for awarding prime land next to the main road to the TFM while they who are the original tillers of the land have been give a share of the property some distance from the road.

We feel that we have been betrayed and unjustly displaced by the DAR," the members of Hacienda Malaga-Cuenca Multi Purpose Cooperative and the Haceinda Malaga Independent Workers Union said in a statement issued Tuesday.

They have sent a letter to Gov. Joseph Maranon asking for the creation of an investigative body "to look into the injustice we are suffering under the continued threat of the DAR to install members of TFM on the land we currently till and occupy."

"We are not against the implementation of the Comprehensive Agrarian reform law, as long as the law which purportedly was made to ensure social justice for the landless will actually serve its purpose the way it was crafted, and not the way DAR or TFM would like us to interpret it to serve their purpose," they said.*CPG

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