LANDOWNERS AT LAST – Farmer-beneficiaries benefiting from the government’s Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) walk along a path within the Jison Estate hacienda in Barotac Nuevo, Iloilo. The Department of Agrarian Reform in Region 6 (DAR 6) turn

BAROTAC NUEVO, Iloilo, Philippines —Tension was averted here when the office of the Department of Agrarian Reform in Region 6 (DAR 6) turned over remaining lands to various farmer beneficiaries in Barotac Nuevo, Iloilo.

“It was a peaceful transition,” said Iloilo provincial agrarian reform officer, Gideon Umadhay who stressed that, “the law prevailed.”

The remaining 76 of 95 farmer beneficiaries were given their own farmland within the Jison Estate in Palaciawan village despite strong protests from hacienda workers, who were not qualified for a certificate of land ownership (CLOA).

Last May 4, tension rose when hacienda workers blocked DAR 6 officials and the farmer beneficiaries while carrying bladed weapons.

The agrarian issue dates back to 2001 when DAR 6 issued CLOAs to 95 farmer beneficiaries. But in 2003, the late estate owner, Elena Jison Golez had filed a petition for disqualification against75 farmers on behalf of four corporations she indicated as owners of the estate. The petition was junked.

On April 2011, the four Jison-Lopez corporations filed for an appeal on the disqualification case while 62 hacienda

workers of Hacienda Claudio also filed for inclusion in the CLAO.

The 62 hacienda workers, who were given a chance to be assessed by DAR 6 insist they are also entitled to be given their own farmlands.

Ernestina Burgos, 69, expressed sadness that DAR 6 only gave lands to farmer beneficiaries who do not even work in the estate.