Farmers group files case vs former mayor, engineer
A farmers’ group has filed charges against former Estancia town mayor Restituto Mosqueda and an engineer for putting up infrastructures in a vast tract of land placed under the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) in the town’s Brgy. Cano-an.
In their complaint, the Central Region Farmers Beneficiary Association Inc. (CRFBAI), represented by its president Roger Bellosillo, claimed that Mosqueda illegally constructed his house in areas covered by CARP.
CRFBAI also included in its complaint an engineer who also put up a hollow block factory and a bottling company which stockpiled cases of softdrink bottles inside the 71-hectare property.
The CRFBAI claimed these persons and the softdrink company violated certain provisions of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Law (CARL) thus, they should dismantle the said structures despite the absence of court proceedings.
The land has been decided for distributed to almost 400 farmer-beneficiaries on October 22, 2007. The decision was declared final and executory by former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo through Deputy Executive Secretary for Legal Affairs Manuel B. Gaite.
CRFBAI had earlier filed a complaint before the Office of the Ombudsman Visayas against the Department of Agrarian Reform 6 for alleged negligence in implementing the writ of execution.
Meanwhile, the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples 6 has started the gradual distribution of land titles to the indigenous people to ensure ownership of the piece of land where they presently live.
In a recent interview with an Iloilo City-based radio station, Alfonso Catolin, NICP 6 regional director, said that in Western Visayas, almost 20,000 hectares of land had been distributed to seven groups of indigenous people landholders in the region.
He said the beneficiaries could not sell the land titles awarded them nor they can pass it on to non-members of the community.*PNA
