BY GILBERT P. BAYORAN
After the declaration of the Department of Agrarian Reform that the 106.84 hectares of land in Brgy. Purisima, Manapla, Negros Occidental, the location of the Victorias Milling Company distillery plant, is exempted from government agrarian reform program coverage, the money allocated for payment to VMC has been returned to the national coffers by the Land Bank of the Philippines.
In a letter to Engr. Leandro Caymo, Director IV of the Bureau of Land Tenure and Improvement of the Department of Agrarian Reform dated October 27, 2021, Ricarte Rey of the Land Transfer Processing Department of LBP, said they are returning the two original claim folders of VMC regarding DAR order of exemption for clearance from CARP coverage dated August 22, 2019 and Certificate of Finality dated February 13, 2020.
On April 24, 2019, LBP reported to DAR that it deposited P15, 062,126.09 as compensation for VMC landholdings, covering 59.5637 hectares, in Brgy. Purisima, Manapla.
Six years earlier, LBP had informed DAR it deposited an amount of P9,034,133.93 to parcel of VMC landholdings, covering also 36.38 hectares, in Aug. 30, 2013, also in the barangay.
Documents obtained by local media showed that contrary to claims of Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program beneficiaries that the government, through LBP, already paid VMC for the alleged land conversion, the money never left the coffers of LBP and VMC has not been paid of a single centavo.*
