An Inquirer report (“DAR chief wants land conflicts resolved following slaying of farmers,” Regions, 2/23/17) on Agrarian Reform Secretary Rafael Mariano’s order to all regional offices “to settle high-profile land cases in their areas” brings to mind one of the high-profile scandals unearthed in the previous presidential campaign.
Then presidential candidate Jejomar Binay was in the thick of a Senate investigation of the so-called “Hacienda Binay” which involved hundreds of hectares of agricultural land bought and then converted for private business use.Department of Agrarian Reform officials invited to those Senate hearings expressed the view that the sale of those agricultural land by farmer-beneficiaries was unlawful and merited reversion proceedings. Nothing has been heard from them since then.
With the Binay family being friends with President Duterte, Mariano seems to be looking the other way. His apparent disinterest in pursuing a probe to get to the bottom of that scandal puts to doubt his sincerity and competence to do the job.
RIMALDO PACIFICO, pacific.rim.aldo@gmail.com