DAR resolution sought to settle CARP row at coconut plantation

DUMAGUETE CITY, Philippines — While maximum tolerance is being exercised at the controversial Polo Coconut Plantation, Inc. (PCPI) in Tanjay City, Negros Oriental, one of its directors, speaking in behalf of the estate’s owners, has expressed fear of possible repercussions if the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) fails to resolve the current issues with a fair and just decision.

Rene Espina, Jr., son of the late Sen. Rene Espina, Sr., was worried that if the DAR comes out with an unfair and unjust ruling, there could be bloodshed at his family’s estate that has been covered by the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP).

The younger Espina feared the outcome of the ongoing petition for inclusion or exclusion filed by a group of farmers calling themselves ARIBA, comprising the original farm workers who were actual land tillers at the PCPI.

ARIBA has told management that, while they respect the call for maximum tolerance, they might just be forced to also defend themselves from the farmer-beneficiaries who were earlier awarded Certificates of Land Ownership Award (CLOAs) by the DAR, said Espina.

These CLOA holders were organized into a cooperative, the POPARMUCO, but some of them were linked to the RIFFO-MARA.

Espina said it would not be fair to those (in ARIBA) who have worked at Polo Plantation for so long if the “outsiders” would be getting the lands as awarded by CARP. The ARIBA members will definitely object if DAR rules in favor of the CLOA holders, or those of the POPARMUCO.

The original farm workers may just heed the call for maximum tolerance for now, but eventually, their patience will run out, said Espina.

Espina hit the DAR for the seeming inaction on the motion for early resolution of the petition filed by ARIBA, lamenting why some DAR officials have been sitting on it.

ARIBA members met last Friday with Provincial Agrarian Reform officer (PARO) Stephen Leonidas for a dialogue on their current status and that of the CLOA holders.

Leonidas had announced earlier that his office was waiting for the go-signal of the DAR central office regarding the PCPI and the issues surrounding it. - THE FREEMAN