MANILA -- The Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) is ready to provide legal assistance to the families of nine sugar workers killed inside Hacienda Nene in Barangay Bulanon, Sagay City Saturday evening.
Agrarian Reform Secretary John Castriciones bared this during a press conference Monday, as he strongly condemned the killing of the alleged members of the National Federation of Sugar Workers (NFSW), including three women and two minors.
Castriciones assured that DAR will exert all efforts to give the victims justice.
He said DAR is working to help uncover the truth behind the massacre. "We'd like to get to the bottom of this," he said.
News reports cited unidentified gunmen as behind the massacre.
Chief Supt. John Bulalacao, Police Regional Office (PRO) Western Visayas director, tagged the communist New People's Army rebels in Negros Island as suspects in the killings.
Castriciones said the hacienda was reportedly the subject of land dispute between the land owners and sugar workers in the area.
Castriciones clarified, however, that DAR doesn't promote violence to resolve land disputes. DAR always pushes for peaceful resolution of land disputes between land owners and farmers, he said.
He said DAR promotes dialogues and mediation meetings to peacefully resolve such disputes.
The details of the massacre are still sketchy, DAR Undersecretary David Erro noted.
"As of now, there's still nothing specific," he said.
Meanwhile, Castriciones said DAR will continue distributing land to the country's agrarian reform beneficiaries (ARBs).
DAR will also further provide training, farm inputs and other forms of support for ARBs to help them eventually break free from poverty, he said.
Latest available data showed that DAR already distributed some 4.8 million hectares of land to about 2.8 million ARBs nationwide from 1972 to June 2018. (PNA).
