Council intervenes in Fusilero, farmers row

CEBU, Philippines – The City Council has decided to step into the conflict between former Regional Police Director Tiburcio Fusilero and farmers of four mountain barangays in Cebu City.

Acting on a resolution sponsored by Councilor Nestor Archival, the council scheduled a dialogue between the two parties at 9am on June 9, hoping to amicably settle the conflict.

Archival penned the resolution after receiving a letter-complaint from Estrella Catarata, executive director of the Central Visayas Farmers Development, against the former police official.

“The affected farmers approached our office to seek our assistance after some of them were harassed, arrested and detained being wrongly accused for illegal cutting of trees,” Catarata wrote.

She claimed that the farmers from barangays Tabunan, Taptap, Tagbao and Pung-ol Sibugay have been confronted with security problems as tillers and residents of 500 hectares of government land that they have been cultivating for the past several years.

Fusilero, for his part, claims a Memorandum of Agreement with the Department of Environment and Natural Resources allows him to develop the subject lands.

Archival heads the City Council’s committee on environment. — Rene U. Borromeo/JMO (THE FREEMAN)