DAR going after oligarchs, too

THE DEPARTMENT of Agrarian Reform (DAR) is apparently behind President Duterte in his avowal to destroy the oligarchs in the country.

In a statement, Agrarian Sec. Rafael “Ka Paeng” Mariano said his agency’s thrust would be “to free farmer tenants from the grip of landlord oligarchs. ”

“These landlord oligarchs use their power, influence and connections to deprive farmer tenants of land that should have been distributed to them by virtue of land reform,” Mariano said.

He cited as example the 6,453hectare Hacienda Luisita—controlled by the Cojuangco family which counts the two President Aquinos as members —whose distribution to its tenant farmers had long been decided by the Supreme Court.

Mariano likewise cited the Negros island region in the Visayas as the “traditional playground of caciques and landlords since the Spanish colonial period.”

“It is the bastion of haciendas where farm workers are still enslaved by hunger and poverty and are being threatened, shot at and massacred by soldiers and goons,” Mariano said.

In an interview, Mariano said that for the first meeting of the Presidential Agrarian Reform Council (Parc) on Aug. 22—which President Duterte will attend—he would raise the issues of two stock distribution options in Negros and one agribusiness venture agreement in Mindanao.

“We are in the process of investigating complaints against Negros Occidental Gov. Alfredo Marañon Jr. for alleged unjust eviction of farmers to develop a [12-ha property] into the Negros First Ranch livestock farm,” Mariano said.

He cited reports Marañon had used government troops to harass the farmers after the DAR had ruled in their favor by denying the provin- cial government’s petition for exemption of the landholdings.

“The new DAR,” Mariano said, “is determined to implement genuine agrarian reform, including free land distribution or land distributed at least cost to the farmers.”