Another DAR exec faces probe

Agrarian Reform Secretary Hernani Braganza ordered yesterday a just-formed investigating committee to look into the role of another provincial official of the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) in the alleged overvaluation of 53 hectares of farm land in Nueva Ecija.

Braganza said the committee, to be headed by DAR assistant secretary Roel Eric Garcia, would look deeper into the role of Benjamin Baui, legal chief of the DAR Nueva Ecija office, in the valuation of the property.

The dispute over the value of the rice and corn land resulted in the arrest on Monday of Land Bank president Margarito Teves for supposed indirect contempt of the provincial agrarian reform adjudicator Napoleon Baguilat.

Baguilat ordered the arrest of Teves for allegedly failing to appear before an adjudication board hearing to explain why he had failed to pay P75 million to the heirs of landowners Loreto Santos and Ferdinand Santiago as compensation for the land.

But the Land Bank argued that the disputed property had already been placed under land reform way back in 1972 and the landowners had already been fully compensated under Presidential Decree No. 27, which was the prevailing land reform law in 1972.

The landowners maintain, however, that the land should be valued under Republic Act 6657, or the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Law of 1987. The landowners stand to receive P75 million under RA 6657.

Braganza said a preliminary probe showed that Baguilat, who is also under investigation, claimed to have based his arrest order on a memorandum of understanding which valued the contested land at P75 million. The MOU was supposedly forged by Baui.

But the DAR chief said the memorandum of agreement itself presents more questions because Braganza said he was neither a signatory nor was he informed of such an agreement.

The dispute was brought before and is still pending before the Cabanatuan City regional trial court, sitting as a special agrarian court, but Baguilat insisted on issuing the arrest order against Teves on Monday.

The order, however, appeared to be faulty and did not even provide bail for Teves although the matter was not considered a heinous crime. No less than Justice Secretary Hernando Perez questioned its legality and advised Teves to sue those involved in his arrest.

After Teves was detained for several hours at the Western Police District (WPD) warrants section on Monday, the DAR adjudication board (DARAB) at the central office issued an order allowing Teves to post bail and temporarily restrained for 20 days the implementation of Baguilat’s order.