Agrarian Reform Beneficiaries from Hacienda Carmencita in Pontevedra and Hacienda Esperanza in Nagasi, La Carlota City, continue to camp out at the DAR office in Bacolod City asking to be installed in the land they claim the government had given them.

PARO Teresita Depeñoso yesterday said the two groups of ARBs are members of Workers Amalgated Union of the Philippines who claimed they were dissatisfied with the non-implementation of the Memorandum of Agreement signed in 2003 which settled the land dispute arising from the implementation of the agrarian reform program in the two haciendas.

The WAUP sided with the estate management during the land dispute in 2003 against other farmer-beneficiaries.

She said the ARBs holding camp at the DAR, 37 from Carmencita and 17 from Esperanza, claimed they decided to cut ties with the union after the management continued to have the property cultivated without recognizing the rights of the farmers as Certificate of Land Ownership Award holders.

Depeñoso said negotiations and consultations with the representatives of the management were already conducted and the ARBs have already been advised to go back to Pontevedra and La Carlota City but they refused.

She said the ARBs fear for their lives in going back to the farm and instead, asked the DAR to install them with the help of law enforcement agencies.

Depeñoso said her office is also reviewing the contents of the seven-party MOA and has asked the management to submit copies of other agreements forged among parties, especially those with the WAUP members.*NAB

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