Newly-installed Provincial Agrarian Reform Officer Stephen Leonidas said he hopes for a peaceful resolution between opposing groups claiming ownership of the Diaz Hermanos estate in Mabinay, Negros Oriental, that had been covered by the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program.

Leonidas, who was re-installed as PARO of Negros Oriental after about six months in nearby Siquijor, disclosed Friday that he still has to look further into the death of a farmer-beneficiary and the wounding of another when violence erupted Thursday in Bagtic, Mabinay.

Leonidas said the 200 agrarian reform beneficiaries who received their Certificate of Land Ownership Award under the CARP, had insisted on their self-installation despite the tension in Bagtic.

Leonidas said a re-survey of the land is going on and he hopes to meet with all parties concerned soon.

On Thursday, Vicente Maicom was reportedly hacked to death and the leader of the ARBs-CLOA holders, Alex Maicom, was seriously wounded.

Alex Maicom had earlier informed Leonidas that the ARBs would re-install themselves.

Leonidas, however, cautioned Maicom against without an order from the Philippine National Police for the local PNP to provide security during the activity. No police personnel had been officially deployed during the self-installation that became bloody and violent, and personnel from the town police and the PNP’s Regional Mobile Group 1st Company responded only after being informed of the hacking incident.*JFP

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