An official of the controversial Polo Coconut Plantation Inc. in Tanjay City, Negros Oriental, has expressed fear of bloodshed if the Department of Agrarian Reform fails to resolve the pending petition of a group of farmers “with a fair and just decision”.

Rene Espina Jr., son of the late Senator Rene Espina Sr., who spoke in behalf of the estate owners as one of its directors, said he is 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.

Espina added he fears the outcome or consequence of the pending petition for inclusion/exclusion that was filed by a group of farmers, who called themselves ARIBA and is comprised of the original farm workers who are actual tillers of the land at the Polo Plantation.

The ARIBA told the estate management that while it respects the call for maximum tolerance, they might be forced to defend themselves from the farmer-beneficiaries who were earlier issued Certificates of Land Ownership Award by the DAR, Espina said.

He hit the DAR for its seeming inaction on the motion for early resolution of the exclusion/inclusion petition of ARIBA.

He said he hopes that the Philippine National Police and the military will be discerning in providing security to the DAR in the event of an installation of the CLOA holders as some of the original farmer-beneficiaries, who were awarded lands at the Polo Plantation, have already been excluded.

The CLOA holders are organized into a cooperative called the POPARMUCO, while some of them have been linked to the RIFFO-MARA.

Espina said it is not fair, especially to those who have worked at Polo Plantation for so long, that outsiders are getting parcels of land at the estate under the CARP.

There will definitely be vehement objection from the “insiders&rdqu