By EUGENE ADIONG
BACOLOD City — A team from the Department of Agrarian Reform’s (DAR) Center for Land Use Planning and Implementation (CLUPI) will inspect today the property where the provincial government’s Negros First Ranch is located.
The provincial government had filed a petition seeking to exempt the 151-hectare lot between haciendas Ilimnan and Arloc in Murcia town from Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) coverage.
The inspection, which will last for two days, is one of the requirements before CLUPI decides on the petition, said Teresita Mabunay, provincial agrarian reform officer for northern Negros Occidental.
Farmers who are members of National Federation of Sugar Workers (NFSW) claim ownership of the property.
NFSW secretary-general John Lozande yesterday said their members will guide the DAR team during the inspection.
Lozande said the DAR team will also interview the farmers regarding the opposition they filed against the provincial government’s petition.
Provincial Legal Officer Jose Ma. Valencia earlier stressed that the provincial government will not give up its claim on the property.
DAR had issued a notice of coverage on the contested land under CARP in 2012, although, in the same year, the provincial government filed a petition for exemption from coverage after it purchased the property from the original owners./PN
