Tension grips Agusan plantation as land reform claimants bicker

A group of agrarian reform beneficiaries sets up camp at an oil palm plantation in Rosario town, Agusan del Sur province. —CHRIS V. PANGANIBAN

SAN FRANCISCO, Agusan del Sur — Tension gripped an area within an oil palm plantation in Rosario town after the killing on Nov. 28 of an agrarian reform beneficiary (ARB) allegedly by a rival group of claimants.

Rolando Moreno Sr., 54, a member of one of three groups of claimants in the 4,000-hectare plantation owned by NDC-Guthrie Plantation Inc. (NGPI) here, was shot and killed when he confronted beneficiaries from another group.

Police believed the attack stemmed from a conflict involving three groups of land claimants awaiting installation to their land.

On Nov. 11, Moreno’s group, led by Emmanuel Sustino, occupied part of the land reform area in anticipation of the turnover. This set of claimants, reports said, wanted to secure their parcel of land from intruders in the wake of infighting among the ARB factions.

Police said footage from a mobile phone video of the incident would be used by investigators in filing charges against the suspects.

In a resolution reached by the groups on Oct. 17, the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) in the province allocated 444 hectares to Sustino’s group composed of 147 members; 444 ha to a group led by a person identified only as Abalaya and with 146 beneficiaries; and close to 3,000 ha to Nestor Alcular’s group of more than 800 members.

But Alcular’s group, whose members compose the original NGPI ARB Multi-Purpose Cooperative where the two other groups had splintered from, protested the final DAR resolution.

In a statement, Alcular’s group accused Provincial Agrarian Reform Officer Leoncio Bautista of favoring the other groups. Alcular’s group, which called for Bautista’s ouster, said the official allocated the more productive portions of the estate to the other groups, leaving it with areas where 35-year-old oil palm trees stand. The group said these mature trees were less productive.

“We call on Bautista to divide the land equally,” the statement said. “(Distribute) the more productive and less productive areas in a way that is acceptable to the three parties,” said Alcular. “If you could not resolve this, you better resign.”

The third faction, led by Abalaya, remains quiet. The 444 ha the DAR assigned to this group included 307 ha of replanted oil palm trees already bearing fruits and earning at least P2 million a month.

Alcular’s group, which also set up tents near the plantation’s main entrance, said it should be given priority over the productive area because its members comprised the estate’s original ARBs.

Alcular, in a letter, asked Bautista to issue a cease and desist order against the Abalaya and Sustino factions, pending resolution of the case.

But Bautista said the final resolution in the subdivision of lands was fair and had basis.

He said the parties had agreed to “peacefully coexist” and to have equal rights and access to farm roads leading to the national highway and mountainous areas.