2 DAR execs face probe

The Department of Agrarian Reform is looking deeper into an alleged connivance between a wealthy landowner and two regional officials accused of deliberately bypassing Secretary Hernani Braganza.

This angle of investigation came out during the joint hearing of the House committees of agrarian reform and justice chaired by Rep. Gregorio Ipong and Rep. Marcelo Libanan, respectively.

According to the two committees, provincial agrarian reform adjudication board officer (Parab) Napoleon Baguilat and legal officer Benjamin Baui bypassed Braganza for entering into a highly disadvantageous agreement with the landowner, former Court of Appeals Justice Fernando Santiago.

The department recently created a special committee, headed by Assistant Secretary Ruel Garcia, to conduct a thorough investigation into an anomalous land valuation of a 53-hectare agricultural land owned by Santiago in Barangay Bangad, Cabanatuan City.

Braganza reported to the two committees that he already directed a five-man special committee to come up with a final report of the investigation on Baguilat, for formalizing a memorandum of understanding (MOU) without his knowledge and consent.

"This is seriously being looked into by a special committee," he said.

The MOU was used as the basis of the anomalous land valuation of Santiago’s rice land assessed at P1.4 million per hectare. The land’s total value was originally placed at P3 million only.

Garcia, however, said Presidential Decree No. 27 stipulates a lower valuation of rice or corn lands at P5,000 per hectar