Roxas group sends feelers

Roxas group sends feelers | Daily Tribune

Roxas and Company Inc. or RCI will submit to the decision of the Department of Agrarian Reform and is open to negotiating with the holders of titles to settle a drawn-out Batangas land dispute, one of the company’s lawyers said.

RCI counsel Irene Grace Villa said the company is willing to sit down with the agrarian reform beneficiaries or ARBs and certificate of land ownership, or CLOA, awardees, along with the DAR, to settle the dispute which DAILY TRIBUNE exposed.

The dispute involves 2,941 hectares of land which is the subject of a repossession process by the listed company.

In an interview on Friday, Jeoprey Bautista Sumague, chairman of Barangay Aga, to which one of the landholdings belongs, said residents were worried the repossession of their land by RCI was imminent.

Not aware

“We are not aware of the situation. We have just read the news that some properties were already sold. If the DAR summons us, then we are willing to comply and to air our side,” RCI counsel Villa said.

She said RCI would defer to the DAR consolidated order which divided the three haciendas, Palico, Banilad and Caylaway, into a “win-win” split for the farmers and the company.

Caylaway residents and ARBs, however, said the consolidated order of Agrarian Reform Secretary Conrado Estrella was unfair, as it favored RCI.

“We respect the decision of the DAR on whatever they ruled. We have not filed anything to counter the DAR decision. But if the DAR mandates us to talk to the ARBs, then we will be more than willing to follow the directive of the DAR. But still, the lead counsel, attorney Melchor Manalo will decide,” Villa said.

Demolition suspended

On Friday, DAR Undersecretary for Legal Affairs Napoleon Galit told DAILY TRIBUNE that no demolition will transpire in the coming months or years, easing the stress of most residents of several barangays, as the order will still undergo “parcelization” and mediation among residents of the disputed lands.

Galit said even the buyers of the CLOAs, who had built businesses on their land such as resorts, will be given ample time to mediate with the DAR and the repossessing company.

He said that based on DAR records, most of the ARBs who received CLOAs for their agricultural land under the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program, or CARP, had sold their land after the 10-year restrictive period.

A resort owner, who sought anonymity, said that most of the CLOA certificates matured after 15 years.

“They (ARBs) sold the valid CLOAs beyond the 10-year restricted period, based on our records. They sold it during the 1990s and we have records to show that. And if we disqualify them, all of them might be disqualified. But since we cannot do that, since they are already there, then we had closed our eyes to their violation,” Galit said.

He clarified that the affected residents who will not receive new CLOAs will be placed in “home lots” for 1,365 affected farmers or agrarian reform beneficiaries.