3 injured as farmers storm DAR over Batangas land dispute

MANILA, Philippines - Three farmers were injured Friday when security personnel of the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) tried to prevent their group from entering the agency in Quezon City. Those injured were identified as Edwin Gonzales, 55; Emilio Liven, 67; and Cris Ruiz, 32. The farmers, who belong to Task Force Mapalad (TFM), said DAR security personnel hit their members in various parts of their bodies with wood sticks. The farmers were calling for the relief of an official who allegedly “willfully contravened" an earlier order for the issuance of the notice of coverage (NOC) for a 124-hectare property in Batangas formerly managed by the Hennessy Development Corp. The disputed property is located in Sitio Marulsa, Barangay Laiya Ibabaw in the municipality of San Juan. The farmers claimed that DAR’s Bureau of Agrarian Legal Assistance (BALA) director Ibra Omar disregarded the order of the DAR Field Operations and prevented the provincial agrarian reform office (PARO) of Batangas from issuing the NOC for the Henessy property. Vicente Ayap, chairman of Laiya Ibabaw Samahang Magsasaka (Lisamag), an affiliate of TFM, accused Omar of selling the farmers out to the Taiwanese-owned firm, and urged DAR Secretary Nasser Pangandaman to conduct an investigation. “We cannot think otherwise than that Director Omar had sold us out. The circumstances are so glaring," Ayap said. According to Ayap, they were surprised to learn from Batangas PARO Cynthia Lapid that Omar had “ordered" her to stop the issuance of notice of CARP coverage on the property because the landowner has a pending appeal before the Office of the President (OP) for the renewal of its land conversion plan. Ayap said that Omar’s order was a complete turnaround from a decision made during a meeting last April 22, where Omar himself allegedly said that there were no legal impediments to the issuance of NOC on the Hennessy property. Ayap said that on the basis of Omar’s opinion, DAR-OIC Assistant Secretary Dominador Andres of the Field Operations Office issued a memorandum dated April 24, 2008 ordering Lapid to issue the NOC for the disputed landholding. However, Ayap, who are among farmers camping in front of the DAR for three weeks now, said that when he immediately went to the DAR office in Batangas with a copy of Andres’ memorandum, he claimed he was surprised to be told that Omar had called up and had asked the PARO not to issue the NOC. “The farmers are very angry. We are very angry, because Henessy Corporation practically does not exist now and its appeal before the Office of the President for renewal of the conversion plan is moot and academic, and yet Director Omar was still acting on behalf of this defunct corporation," Ayap asserted. The farmers said that in 1988, Hennessy Development Corp. was allowed to convert the property into a first-class eco-tourism area but failed to undertake any development. The company then applied for extension of the conversion but failed to submit essential documents, thus, DAR dismissed its application. - GMANews.TV