Farmers get land
after 14-year wait
BY GILBERT BAYORAN

After almost 14 years of waiting, the 106 farmer-beneficiaries belonging to the Crossing Magallon Agrarian Reform Beneficiaries Multi-Purpose Cooperative and Agraryo Benepisyaryo Reporma sang San Isidro Labrador, were finally installed by the Department of Agrarian Reform in a 320-hectare disputed property at Hacienda San Benito, Brgy. Crossing Magallon, Moises Padilla in Negros Occidental, yesterday.

Farm workers and members of the Hacienda San Benito Employees and Laborers Multi-Purpose Cooperative, who are the original residents and workers of the hacienda formerly owned by the family of former Negros Occidental Board Member Enrique Miguel Lacson, tried to stop the installation, but to no avail.

Police brief bank
officers on security
BY ADRIAN NEMES III

Bacolod City Police officer-in-charge, Senior Supt. Edgardo Ordaniel, met with bank managers yesterday and assured them that, despite the spate of robbery incidents, the police are still on top of the situation.

Ordaniel stressed policemen are trying their best to prevent robberies from happening again in Bacolod.

He also informed the bankers about the reactivation of the motorized anti-street crime operatives, or policemen on motorcycles, and the deployment of more cops in the city’s business districts as deterrent to crimes.

A retired government prosecutor, who needs a heart bypass operation, yesterday appealed to President Benigno Aquino to help him avail of his pension, which has not been released since he retired in 2011 despite his having written to Justice Secretary Leila de Lima.

Marcelo B. del Pilar, 66, retired as OIC city prosecutor of Cadiz City in Negros Occidental on July 15, 2011, after almost 36 years of government service.

But he said, like more than 100 other prosecutors nationwide who retired since 2011, he, too, has not been paid his lump sum pension. The Department of Justice has not explained to the retirees what is causing the delay, he said.