Negros Occidental farmers end 29-day hunger strike

Activist-farmers from Negros Occidental ended their 29-day hunger strike early Thursday evening with a thanksgiving Mass and by eating lugaw (rice porridge), radio station DZBB reported. This was after Agrarian Reform Secretary Nasser Pangandaman, with the help of the police and the Army, was able to "peacefully" install some 100 farmer-beneficiaries (FBs) on Hacienda Velez Malaga in Robles village, La Castellana town Thursday afternoon. DZBB, quoting Rodito Angeles, president of Task Force Mapalad, reported a Mass was held 6 p.m. At least 18 TFM farmers started their hunger strike on February 22 to protest the alleged failure of DAR to physically install them on the 144-hectare portion of Hacienda Velez Malaga. Eleven of the protesters were rushed to East Avenue Medical Center this week due to dehydration. Doctors warned one of the farmers could suffer from paralysis if he does not stop his hunger strike. The scheduled installation of the farmer-beneficiaries (FBs) were delayed after a group of people threw stones at the farmers and government officials led by Pangandaman, The DAR has long awarded the FBs certificates of land ownership award (CLOA) over the land formerly owned by Roberto Cuenca. But the CLOAs proved useless when the government failed to immediately install the FBs on the land due to stiff resistance by the former landowner. Under the law, the installation of farmers must follow immediately after the awarding of CLOA. Once CLOAs are generated and awarded to FBs, this means that the government has already legalized the beneficiaries' ownership of an agricultural land and that a compensation has already been deposited at the Land Bank of the Philippines for the former landowner. Under RA 6657 or Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Law, DAR could not just take away the land from an owner and award it to farmers without just compensation given to the former landowner. Pangandaman said there were "no longer legal impediments" when the DAR installed the FBs on the hacienda. This also meant that DAR has already given the former landowner just compensation in exchange for the land that the government took from him. - GMANews.TV