About 30 members of the farmers organization, Task Force Mapalad, were dispersed and taken into temporary police custody in Talisay City, Negros Occidental, Saturday for staging a protest near the Natures Village Resort, where President Benigno Aquino was to administer the oath to the new members of Liberal Party, of which he is the chairman.

The TFM members, mostly women and the elderly, displayed their placards at the main gate hoping that Aquino would heed their call for the distribution of 135,000 hectares in Negros Occidental covered by the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform but it did not happen because they were dispersed even before the President’s arrival.

Senior Supt. Allan Guisihan, Provincial Police Director, gave the TFM members, who did not have permits to rally, five minutes to air their demands and leave but they refused, prompting him to order their dispersal.

Some of the protestors fell into a shallow roadside canal while trying to avoid the policemen dispersing them. In the end, they were all forced to ride on a bus rented by NOPPO and brought to the Talisay City police.

The protestors were not detained and were released after the event at the Natures Village Resort and the President had left, Talisay city police chief, Supt. Joseph Thomas Martir said.

Rogelio Diaz, one of the protestors, said their purpose was not to disrupt the activity of LP but to air their demands while his companion Armi Santillan said there is nothing wrong with what they are doing as they only want to seek help from the president.

The Negros Occidental Police Provincial Office Crowd Dispersal Management unit also barred the members of the Bagong Alyansang Makabayan-Negros from coming near the Natures Village Resort to air their demands to Aquino.

Members of BAYAN marched from the Bacolod City North Terminal going to Talisay City but they were barred at the bridge connecting the two cities by the CMD unit.

After a brief negotiation, Guisihan allowed the protestors to enter Talisay City and told them that they can only hold their rally in front of the Ayala North Point Subdivision. Tension, however, arose when their secretary general Christian Tuayon insisted going near the resort.

When they realize that it would be hard for them to get near the resort, the protestors decided to give up and leave.

Tuayon said they were calling on the President to implement genuine land reform, a moratorium on demolitions, and to scrap the oil deregulation law, among others.

Despite the protest actions, NOPPO reported that the visit of Aquino to Negros Occidental was generally peaceful.*APN

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