DAR tells farmers they’ll be protected

LUCENA CITY—The head of the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) office in Quezon province assured farmer-beneficiaries that they would be protected from harassment by landlords in an estate in San Francisco town.

Samuel Solomero, head of DAR in Quezon, said the department, with representatives from the Commission on Human Rights, policemen and soldiers, had met with leaders of the Kilusang Magbubukid ng Bondoc Peninsula (KMBP) in Gumaca town on Feb. 13 to plan steps to prevent farmers from being harassed.

The group agreed to work together to install 69 land reform beneficiaries in the Matias Estate, he said.

It was also decided that on Feb. 24, representatives from the DAR, police and the military would escort land reform beneficiaries when they bring out their products from the estate to copra traders, according to Solomero.

Maribel Luzara, president of the KMBP, on Monday urged the DAR to quickly install the farmers on lands awarded to them by the government.

She said that since last month, holders of certificates of land ownership award in Hacienda Matias in the villages of Butanglad and Don Juan Vercelos had been prevented from bringing their copra out of the estate by workers and guards manning the gates.