NPA owns up to raiding Danding Cojuangco farm

MANILA, Philippines –The New People's Army (NPA) has claimed responsibility for last Sunday’s raid on a farm supposedly owned by beer magnate Eduardo "Danding" Cojuangco in the central city of Himamaylan. A press statement by the rebel group said its Leonardo Panaligan Command - Central Negros raided the farm in Hacienda Nieva in Barangay Tooy at about about 11 p.m. on Feb. 8. Frank Fernandez, NDF-Negros spokesman, said the raiders disarmed the guards of their firearms and confiscated two shot guns and three handguns and carted away other tools of production. They also reportedly burned the heavy machinery for power spray and rolls of water hoses and other equipment. Fernandez said the raid in Hacienda Nieva was "part of the agrarian revolution being waged by the revolutionary group to enable to distribute the more than 5,000 hectares of agricultural land owned by Cojuangco in Negros to benefit the peasant masses and the farm workers." Police had earlier reported that more than 50 rebels were involved in the raided Hacienda Nieva, which is part of the ECJ (Eduardo Cojuangco Jr.) Farms. While the rebels said they planned to liberate farmers working in the hacienda, the 1,756-strong ECJ Farmworkers Agrarian Reform Beneficiaries Multipurpose Cooperative were reportedly not impressed. A report by the Visayas-based Daily Tribune quoted the cooperative’s president, Francisco Oplas, appealing to the NPA to allow them to work in peace toward the success of land reform in the Cojuangco landholdings in Negros Occidental. - D’Jay Lazaro, GMANews.TV