AGRARIAN Reform Secretary Rafael Mariano ordered on Tuesday an investigation and fast resolution of a land dispute in Negros Occidental, the bastion of vast tracts of haciendas.
The order came following the shooting of 48-year-old farmer Wenceslao Pacquiao by a lone gunman in Barangay San Benito, Calatrava on Jan. 25.
Mariano directed Negros Island regional director Stephen Leonidas to look into the dispute and give justice to the victims.
“Necessary steps to hasten the resolution of agrarian disputes are in place to avoid the death of another farmer in cold blood,” he said.
Based on reports, the Department of Agrarian Reform disclosed Pacquiao, a member of the Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas-Negros, and Paubaya were cultivating their lands when an unidentified armed man fired at them.
The land in question was originally owned by Angelina Bruce Laguda and is currently leased to several farmers by Agustilo Hullesa.
Laguda opted to sell the land through the voluntary-offer-to-sell scheme allowing DAR to process land distribution to qualified agrarian reform beneficiaries. The certificates of land ownership awards were then distributed to beneficiaries.
The farmers who were not included in the list, such as Pacquiao and Paubaya, being one of these tillers, challenged the CLOAs. The shooting happened while the issued CLOA was questioned before DAR.
Earlier, Alexander Ceballos, also a farmer from Negros, sustained a headshot that led to his death.
“We want to welcome the sunrise with lands in the hands and control of the farmers, but we certainly do not want to see the sunset with death of a fellow farmer,” Mariano stressed.
Meanwhile, DAR welcomed the Jan. 6 resolution rendered by the Eighth Division of the Court of Appeals, denying the application of the Lapanday Foods Corp. for the issuance of a temporary restraining order and/or writ of preliminary injunction on the cease-and-desist order issued by Mariano last Dec. 16.
Following the request of the Madaum Agrarian Reform Beneficiaries Association Inc. for intervention, the agrarian reform chief issued the CDO “prohibiting Lapanday, its security guards, and all persons acting for and in their behalf, from forcibly evicting the members MARBAI and from disturbing their peaceful possession and occupation of the property.”
Lapanday challenged the order through a petition for certiorari before the Court of Appeals, and questioned DAR’s jurisdiction to issue such order stating that it is not granted by the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program, or Republic Act No. 6657.
The resolution issued by the court deemed it appropriate to deny Lapanday’s application for TRO and/or preliminary injunction citing that “it may very well give rise to a tug-of-war scenario over the physical possession of the land allocated by the Provincial Agrarian Reform Adjudicator (Davao del Norte) to MARBAI members.”