President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo instructed two Cabinet secretaries to look into reports that a hunger strike was taking place in Hacienda Velez Malaga in Barangay Robles, La Castellana, but it turned out that Malacañang was a victim of disinformation.

Agrarian Reform Secretary Nasser Pangandaman yesterday said he arrived in Negros Occidental Thursday afternoon and he was surprised to learn that there were no hunger strikers.

The trip of Social Services Secretary Esperanza Cabral to the area to bring food assistance was cancelled after it was learned that there was no hunger strike, he said.

"There appears to be a disinformation effort," he said, but could not say where the reports of the hunger strike came from.

Pangandaman said he also came to Negros as part of the ongoing assessment on the ground of the situation at Hacienda Velez Malaga.

POSITIVE DEVELOPMENTS

There have been positive developments and we hope to install farmer beneficiaries on the farm "soonest", he said.

"The faster, the better for us," he said.

One hundred two members of Task Force Mapalad are demanding that the DAR install them on the property, but 178 workers of a farmers cooperative are opposing the move.

The cooperative members claim that they are original tillers and not all the TFM members are workers of the farm yet they were given the prime areas of the land. They are asking that those who are not the initial tillers of the land be removed from the list of the beneficiaries.

Pangandaman said there are no more legal impediments to the installation of the farmer beneficiaries in Hacienda Velez-Malaga, their CLOAs have not been cancelled, we just want to make sure no violence breaks out between opposing groups.

"We are very consistent with our statement - we want to install the farmers there peacefully," he said.

He said the presence of Provincial Mobile Group personnel in Hacienda Velez Malaga is temporary, anytime they can be pulled out.

"So when they are pulled out we cannot really guarantee the safety of our farmers inside," he said.

He cited the move of Task Force Mapalad members to self install that led to death of Pepito Santillan.

There are efforts that are going on so that we will be able to install our farmers peacefully with the help of some personalities in Negros and the local government, he said, but refused to mention names.

We are talking to both sides, he said.

These farm workers on both sides of the conflict are related to each other so we hope to get them to agree to peacefully co-exists, he said.

He pointed out that the problem in Velez-Malaga was a conflict between two groups of CARP beneficiaries. As to the call of TFM members for him to step down for failing to install them, Pangandaman said "I will not resign, I serve at the pleasure of the President."

If TFM files a case against him before the Ombudsman, he said, "I will welcome that, I will face them in court."

I am calling on the people in Manila hitting us for holding off the installation to go to the area to see what the situation on the ground is, he said.

"We are working silently to solve this situation once and for all peacefully," he said.

TFM CALL

Meanwhile, TFM in a press statement yesterday said its members will go to Malacañang next week to convince the president to take immediate action to resolve the land conflict at Hacienda Velez Malaga.

The press release quoted Florenda Hilario, 48, one of the hunger strikers at the DAR office in Quezon City, as saying that they do not expect Pangandaman to install them anymore, they hope the president can do it.*CPG

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