No hunger strike in Negros

LA CASTELLANA, Negros Occidental – Agrarian Reform Secretary Nasser Pangandaman flew to Bacolod City Thursday to personally check on the information that a group of farmers were on hunger strike.

However, his field officers found that there were no picket lines or starving farmers in the area.

The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) was ready to ship food and medicine to Hacienda Velez-Malaga in Barangay Malaga here after Malacañang received information about the hunger strike.

Pangandaman said he immediately called Social Welfare Secretary Esperanza Cabral that the information was false.

The DSWD office has already coordinated with the office of Gov. Joseph Marañon and Mayor Enrico Elumba, who also conducted their own investigation on the alleged hunger strike. 

"Probably Malacañang was confused or was intentionally misinformed," Elumba said.

Pangandaman said he has no idea where the information came or who fed it to Malacañang.

Meanwhile, the DAR official met with various sectors in the province to find solution to the ongoing impasse in the Hacienda Malaga case. 

A task force is being eyed by the department to review the Malaga case and find a peaceful solution to the conflict, Pangandaman said.

"The landowner is no longer involved in the impasse. The fight is now among farmer beneficiaries," he said.

He added that the threat of violence in the area remains as the only reason that is stopping DAR from installing the farmers affiliated with the Task Force Mapalad.

"In so far as DAR is concerned, there are no longer legal impediments that prevent us from installing the farmers," he said, adding that even if they have installed the beneficiaries, the agency still needs to ensure that there will be peace in the area.