Court steps in, protects farmers in land reform area in Capiz

ILOILO CITY—A court in Capiz province has issued a writ of amparo to protect farmers, whose colleague was killed in a violent confrontation with representatives of owners of a disputed property in the boundary of President Roxas and Pontevedra towns.

Judge Ignacio Alajar of the Roxas City Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 18, in an order issued on Feb. 16, barred Ferdinand Bacanto, administrator of the disputed Hacienda Montecarbo, and other respondents from “doing acts intended to harm the (land beneficiaries) or threaten their security.”

The court also directed the Western Visayas regional director of the Philippine National Police to provide security to the farmers, all of whom hold Certificates of Land Ownership Award (Cloa) for the 198-hectare land.

A writ of amparo is a remedy available to any person whose right to life, liberty and security is violated or threatened.

“Careful evaluation of the allegations of the petition reveals that the lives of the petitioners are in danger by reason of the recent incidents that transpired in Hacienda Montecarbo,” the court order reads.

The heirs of Orlando Eslana, the farmer who was shot and killed on Feb. 12, and 25 other land reform beneficiaries sought the writ.

Eslana was among 60 farmers who occupied part of the property of Nemesio Tan on Feb. 6, when the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) failed to install them as owners 19 years after they were issued their Cloa in 1998.

The move led to a clash that killed Eslana and wounded four other farmers and a relative of Bacanto in Barangay Culilang in President Roxas town.

The farmers said they had grown impatient over the failure of the DAR to install them as owners.

But Bacanto, the village chief of Culilang, decried the occupation, citing an injunction issued by the Capiz RTC in 2000 barring the DAR from installing the beneficiaries.