Farmers’ organization Task Force Mapalad (TFM) recently put out a press release claiming local farmers have been receiving death threats from hacienda owners as they await land distribution through the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP), which President Rodrigo Duterte earlier vowed to rush.

After Welter Balayo, a peasant leader in Sagay City, was killed earlier this week, some local farmers say they fear returning home due to threats received from local landowners.

“Despite the visit [by] the president to Sagay City last March and [warned] against recalcitrant landlords,” explained TFM Negros-Panay Chapter President Teresita Tarlac. “It looks like these hacienderos fear no one – even the most powerful leader of this country.”

“This injustice has been going on for decades; many lives [have] been lost as peasants continue their struggle for land,” she added. “We hope that President Duterte will teach them a lesson.”

During the said visit to Sagay City, the president distributed 3,423 certificates of land ownership award (CLOAs).

DAR noted, their 2019 distribution target for Negros Occidental is 12,000 hectares.

Meanwhile, amid calls by local groups for the land distribution process to be fast-tracked, DAR Secretary John Castriciones explained the process itself requires 25 steps before CLOAs are provided to agrarian reform beneficiaries. He noted, some instances require court dates.

“If we are able to finish the processing of the CLOAs, we immediately distribute,” he said./WDJ