The provincial government is open to a dialog with the farmers claiming ownership of the portion of the land in Hacienda Ilimnan, Brgy. Sta. Rosa in Murcia, where the ranch of Negros Occidental Provincial government is located, Jose Maria Valencia, Provincial Legal Officer, said yesterday.

Valencia was reacting to the information he received from the Department of Agrarian Reform that the farmers are seeking a dialog with the provincial government and asking if they can plant their crops beside the ranch.

Valencia, however, said the provincial government will only hold a dialog with the legitimate residents of Hacienda Ilimnan, and not with the officials of the National Federation of Sugar Workers, who are not from the area.

He said the provincial government is even willing to buy the farmers' crops so they will have income.

Valencia added that some of the children of the farmers living near the ranch were, in fact, hired by the provincial government to work at the ranch.

Meanwhile, Ed Palma, chairman of Hacienda Ilimnan Farm Workers Association, said yesterday that two tractors were sent to the area to plow the land.

Palma claimed that they are being harassed by policemen in the area.

Governor Alfredo Marañon, Jr. said that, in the first place, the farmers should not have planted their crops in the area owned by the provincial government.

What the farmers did was illegal as they forcibly occupied the area, Marañon said.

DAR records show that the agency issued a notice of coverage on the contested 155 hectares of land in Hacienda Ilimnan under CARP in 2012, although on the same year, the provincial government filed a petition for exemption from coverage.

The petition has not yet been acted upon by the Center for Land Use Planning and Implementation as the agency is asking the provincial government to submit several documents to prove its ownership of the land.*APN

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