An organization of CARP farmer-beneficiaries condemned the harassment perpetuated by six armed guards on a team of agrarian reform implementers tasked to conduct ocular inspection and valuation of a 331-hectare estate in Bukidnon on November 8.
Members of the Fortich Farm Landless Farmers Beneficiaries Association (FFLFBA), Northern Bukidnon Agrarian Reform officer Julio Celestiano and his staff together with Land Bank of the Philippines representatives were barred by the armed guards from entering the Fortich Farm in Valencia City, Bukidnon on November 8, 2011. Rosendo Emat, chair of the FFLFBA, said the guards told the team “to enter at their own risk.” “The guards warned PARO Celestiano not to enter the farm or be shot,” said Emat.
In a report obtained by TFM, Celestiano told DAR Regional 10 director Felix Aguhob that: “As the conversation ensued, one guard commented that they are upon orders that if anybody enters the property, they would be shot.”
Fortich Farm, owned by the family of former governor Carlos O. Fortich, is covered by the government’s agrarian reform program since 2005 under compulsory acquisition. But recently the landowners have been negotiating for voluntary offer to sell.
On August 18, 2011, the DAR-LBP team’s first ocular inspection (OCI) did not prosper because the landowners were reportedly not around. Another attempt to conduct the OCI was last September 15 but the team did not enter the farm located in Barangay San Carlos because of the “landowners negotiation for VOS.”
