AGRARIAN-reform advocates on Thursday accused the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) and the Land Bank of the Philippines (LBP) of collusion to exempt the Arroyo-owned Hacienda Bacan in Negros Occidental in the coverage of the Comprehensive Agrarian-Reform Program (CARP).

Believing that Malacañang is behind the move, members of the militant peasant federation Task Force Mapalad (TFM), called on President Arroyo to distribute the landholdings of the family of her husband, Miguel Arroyo.

The protesters expressed dismay upon learning, during a meeting with DAR officials on Monday, that Land Bank was asking for the issuance of another notice of coverage (NOC) for the 157-hectare hacienda among other requirements before it would accept the landowners’ claim folder for valuation of the property.

According to TFM chairman Rodito Angeles, the DAR had already issued three notices of CARP coverage to Rivulet Corp., Rep. Iggy Arroyo and First Gentleman Mike Arroyo.

“Now we are being told that DAR should issue another NOC because the Landbank said there was no evidence that the concerned parties had actually received the notices,” said Angeles.

Angeles said his group has documents to show that Rivulet Agro-Industrial Corp., the declared owner of Hacienda Bacan, had approved the voluntary sale of the hacienda.

According to Angeles, Regino Q. Ferrarin Jr., assistant corporate secretary of Rivulet Corp., had certified under oath that the board of directors of the corporation had issued a resolution approving the sale of the property, which was contained in a notarized certificate issued by the same board on June 21, 2001.

The board had also resolved to duly authorize Rep. Ignacio T. Arroyo of Negros, administrator of Rivulet, to represent the corporation in any and all to sign all documents necessary to effect the said sale to the Republic of the Philippines.

LOCAL garment exporters appealed to the government to jump-start negotiations with US trade officials for a full-blown free-trade agreement (FTA) this early after their bid to get a preferential tariff deal exclusively for apparels was thumbed down by Washington.

AFTER putting up retail outlets in poor areas for cheap rice, the government will also be opening today stores for low-priced bread products in select impoverished communities.

PRESIDENT Arroyo has authorized the phased implementation of the National Irrigation Administration (NIA) rationalization plan over a five-year period instead of a one-time execution, to ensure the proper maintenance and management of rehabilitated irrigation systems across the country once the agency hands them over to irrigators’ groups.

FARMERS checking the weather on mobile phones or sending birth details of livestock over the Internet may be a thing of the future. That is, if the Philippine government fails to perform its supporting role to spur the country’s information and communications technology (ICT) growth.

AFTER a thorough observation of the Philippines’ retail-market culture, the founder of a New York-based research and consulting company suggested that retailers craft new ideas from places where the money is “young,” such as in Moscow, Dublin, Sao Paolo, Mexico City, Shanghai, Mumbai and Dubai, instead of borrowing concepts from the West.

AGRARIAN-reform advocates on Thursday accused the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) and the Land Bank of the Philippines (LBP) of collusion to exempt the Arroyo-owned Hacienda Bacan in Negros Occidental in the coverage of the Comprehensive Agrarian-Reform Program (CARP).

THE Singaporean government has given the Philippines the go signal to export pork after it approved the accreditation of the Matutum Meat Packing Plant Corp. based in Mindanao.

ESTABLISHING more science centers in the Philippines will help boost its economy with an increase in the availability of manpower highly trained in science and technology, the president of California Science Center (CSC) said.