Hundreds of agrarian reform beneficiaries in Bayawan City , Negros Oriental, staged a rally Tuesday, to protest the alleged failure of the Department of Agrarian Reform to install lands given to them through Certificate of Land Ownership Awards.

Eugene Quirante, liaison officer for Negros Oriental of the Centro Saka, Inc. said, the farmers were surprised when, despite the issuance of CLOAs, they have not been installed on three parcels of land previously owned by the heirs of Catalino Noel in Brgy. Nangka, Bayawan.

He said the DAR should hold a dialog with the farmers and act on their problems, before the situation “goes out of hand.”

The farmer beneficiaries are members of the Negros Farmers Council and Negros Farmlands, under the umbreall of CSI, a nationwide advocacy farmers institution.

Angel Tormon of the NFC, meanwhile, called on the community to get involved in the farmers' struggle. This is not only the concern of the beneficiaries, but the public whose food consumption also depends on farmers, he said.

I n a position paper, various agrarian reform beneficiary organizations in the province lambasted what they called as “systematic cancellation” of CLOAs.

Quirante called on Congress to fast-track House Bill 1257, authored by Akbayan Rep. Riza Hontiveros-Baraquel and Senate Bill 2047 authored by Sen. Jinggoy Estrada, extend implementation of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Law which will expire in June.

They also called for a revamp of the provincial DAR officers, who, they claimed are working in cahoots with moneyed landowners.

DAR is so fast in land conversion, but very slow in installing the farmers, they added.*RG

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