Farmers Picket FG Arroyo to Press for Distribution of Negros Hacienda

A group of farmers belonging to the peasant federation Task Force Mapalad and Peace-Unorka picketed the office of First Gentleman Mike Arroyo at the LTA Building in Makati City to ask him to stop obstructing the process of distributing the 157-hectare Hacienda Bacan, which had already been acquired under the voluntary offer to sell (VOS) scheme of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP).

TFM president Jose Rodito Angeles said Arroyo should stop pressuring the Register of Deeds of Bacolod City and the Land Registration Authority in Quezon City and allow them to register the certificate of land ownership award (CLOA) generated by the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) in July last year for the 100 farmer-beneficiaries of Hacienda Bacan, located in Barangay Guintubhan, Isabela, Negros Occidental.

Angeles said Arroyo has no valid reason to continue to obstruct the registration of CLOA and, thus, the awarding of the hacienda to the farmer-beneficiaries because the Land Bank of the Philippines had already deposited more than P40 million as payment for the property.

“Mike Arroyo should let go of the hacienda. In the first place it was a VOS landholding. It had undergone legal and valid processing, despite so many obstacles set by hacienda management to obstruct the CARP process. And Arroyo himself issued a declaration in 2007 that he had no interest in the property and that he agreed to have it distributed under CARP. Why does he keep on obstructing its distribution now?” said Angeles.

Angeles said the beneficiaries had to fight every step of the way during the past eight years to complete the CARP process in the Arroyo-owned hacienda.

“The beneficiaries had to press for completion of the claim folder, which took at least five years. Then there was the issue of land valuation, and then the issuance of memorandum of valuation which Arroyo tried to prevent. And then the issuance of certificate of deposit which Arroyo also tried to prevent. And now the registration of CLOA which Arroyo continues to prevent,” said Angeles.

“We urge First Gentleman Mike Arroyo to let go of the hacienda. The farmer-beneficiaries have fought a hard battle for eight years to fulfill their dream of having a land of their own. They deserve to have their land,” Nestor Inapan, Vice-President of Bacan Laborer Farmers Association (Balfa) under Peace-Unorka urged.

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