• GILBERT P. BAYORAN
Malacañang tasked National Security Adviser Eduardo Año and Presidential Adviser on Peace, Reconciliation and Unity (OPAPRU) chief Carlito Galvez to “evaluate the merit” of the petition of about 10,000 farmers in southern Negros to revive the Dacongcogon Sugar Mill Project in Kabankalan City, Negros Occidental.
In 2019, the OPAPRU and Philippine Army reported that the CHICKS (Cauayan-Hinobaan-Ilog-Candoni-Kabankalan-Sipalay) area, having the most insurgency affected barangays in Negros Occidental, while the Provincial Development Council declared its four municipalities, including Ilog, Cauayan, Candoni, and Hinobaan, as “poverty stricken towns,” according to retired government prosecutor Rolando Parpa.
The petitioning farmers, spearheaded by the Dacongcogon Farmers Producers Cooperative (DFPC) that is led by Parpa, also issued an appeal to Rep. Mercedes Alvarez to follow up on the actions of Año and Galvez on the PMS referrals, and to intercede for the National Security Council, OPAPRU, the Sugar Regulatory Administration, National Task Force on Ending Local Communist Armed Conflict, and the National Economic Development Authority to convene and act together in the context of government announced a “whole-of-nation” approach to support social programs to end insurgency.
Parpa also suggested that the inter-agency meeting should include representatives of the farmers, local executives, and concerned stakeholders to get full determination of the “merit” of reviving the mill project established by late President Ferdinand Edralin Marcos in 1968.
The petition of farmers was also supported by all CHICKS area mayors.
Parpa said that the Dacongcogon Sugar Milling District is the only district without a sugar mill.
He further stressed that the sugarcane farmers are mostly small landholders, with almost half of their production going to the costs of hauling their canes to distant mills.
Parpa added that the farmers, who could hardly take off from poverty, are appealing for social justice from the government.
In his letters to Año and Galvez, Atty. Rodolfo John Robert Palattao IV, Undersecretary for Legal Monitoring of the Presidential Management Staff, said “kindly evaluate the merits of the request, in accordance with your existing guidelines and applicable laws, rules and regulations.”*
