Three Kagawads of Brgy. Alangilan, Bacolod City, are asking the Department of Agrarian Reform Regional Office 6 to enforce without delay compliance with the April 16 cease-and-desist order it has issued, by stopping and preventing businessman Rey Francis Cabuga and his workers from further introducing developments in the questioned landholdings on which the Metro Safari Resort is being built.

In their supplement to Omnibus Motion for implementation of CDO, Alangilan Kagawads Alex Sausi, Donard Alimpolo and Roy Retiza, also asked the DAR Regional Office 6 to submit a written report on the matter.

The DAR Regional Office had issued a CDO to Cabuga for illegally converting farm holdings designated as lot numbers 1581-B-2, 1581-B-3 and 1581-B-4 in Brgy. Alangilan, for non-agricultural uses without an approved land conversion order.

Cabuga was also ordered by DAR regional director Alejandro Otacan to explain in writing within five days from receipt of his letter why a criminal case for illegal conversion should not be filed against him.

The complainants said Cabuga continues to introduce massive improvements on the landholdings, in a gross display of arrogance and defiance of a lawful order of the DAR regional director.

They also said his on site engineers and laborers work from day until the evening, to complete the concrete structures he wants to build in the area within the shortest period of time.

Clearly, Cabuga defies law and order, and challenges the power and authority of the DAR regional director, the complainants said.

This fact is too serious to be taken lightly, much less disregarded, otherwise, the entire program of agrarian reform in Negros Occidental will be doomed to fail, they said.

The complainants noted that Cabuga, through his counsel, made untruthful and misleading statements, in his letter to the DAR regional director, where he stated that “The CDO is moot and academic as Cabuga has, on his own volition, stopped from pursuing his project upon his lawyer’s advice and request from the Office of the Building Official, which action can be traced as early as February 7.”

The complainants said continued mobilization and construction on site, despite the issuance of CDO and despite the lack of a building permit are too clear and glaring to be denied. The continuance of his development project even becomes more mysterious, if not anomalous, by the certification issued by the OBO attached to Cabuga’s letter to DAR RO VI.

OBO head Isidro Sun. Jr. issued a certification dated April 25 certifying that “Cabuga has complied with the order of OBO to stop the construction in his proposed Metro Safari Resort in Alangilan from Feb. 7 up to the present.”

The complainants said Cabuga’s allegation that he is being singled out as there are other persons similarly guilty of the offense he committed (such as illegal conversion) is designed only to distract the attention of the regional director on the issues surrounding the case.

Cabuga’s illegal acts cannot and should not be justified by mere allegation that others have likewise committed. His case is independent of the cases of others, they said.

His case should be tried and decided according to its merits and demerits. It cannot and should not be made dependent on hypothetical issues that are yet to be established, the complainants added.*CGS

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