About 100 members of the National Federation of Sugarcane Workers rallied in front of the Department of Agrarian Reform Negros Occidental North office for Brgy. Dawis, Bacolod City, to show their support to farmers who held a dialog with DAR officials yesterday.

Greg Ratin, spokesperson of Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas, said their members have been taking part in the dialog with DAR for years but their explanation and answers remain the same.

Many members have received their certificates of land ownership awards but none of them have been installed, Ratin said.

“DAR is giving us the same answers, like farmers cannot take over the land because there are still standing crops planted by the land owners, or the land has been leased to another proprietor,” he said.

Yet Ratin also said DAR is giving them lame excuses to cover for their mistakes and inaction, adding that the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program extension with reforms is about to end but farmers have not received their lands.

He added that the issuance of the Administrative Order No. 34 that creates an inter-agency committee on institutional arrangements for land management and rural development by the Malacañang will again not give rightful solutions to the distribution of lands to farmers.

Ratin also said this is just another strategy of the government to push for another extension of CARP, and this will become an indefinite program because of poor implementation. *LTG

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