AGRARIAN Reform Secretary Nasser Pangandaman issued Thursday a status quo order directing San Miguel Foods Inc. (SMFI) to refrain from further undertaking development activities other than those now ongoing in the controversial 144-hectare farmland it bought from the Quisumbing family in Sumilao, Bukidnon, pending resolution of the case.

In a two-page order, Pangandaman also asked some 150 Higaonon farmers to respect ownership and possession by the  SMFI of the disputed property, while the team he formed to look into the controversy is deliberating on the case.

He said his order is meant to keep the two contending parties from carrying out any activity that is deemed prejudicial to either side.

“With the issuance of this order, we hope that the two contending parties would sit down and try to reach a mutually beneficial resolution,” Pangandaman said.

On Wednesday Pangandaman’s predecessors, former secretaries Florencio Abad, Ernesto Garilao and Jose Mari Ponce, dropped by the farmers’ camp site in front of the DAR apparently to express their support to the cause the farmers are fighting for.

“We are looking at the so-called win-win solution to this matter. Again, I would like to repeat that this case has just been remanded to us. We’ll try to rectify the failure or build on the foundation set by the previous leadership in the DAR,” Pangandaman said.

The farmers and their supporters are currently camping out in front of the DAR office to press their bid to place the contested property anew under land reform, eight years after the Supreme Court approved with finality the conversion order Malacañang issued in August 1999.

The farmers claimed that the conversion order should be rescinded after the Quisumbings failed to comply with the conditions set therein.

THE National Agriculture and Fisheries Council Committee on Fisheries and Aquaculture (NAFC-CFA) has endorsed the creation of a task force that will look into the just compensation that should be received by fishermen who will be affected by an oil-drilling exploration in Tañon Strait in Cebu.

AGRARIAN Reform Secretary Nasser Pangandaman issued Thursday a status quo order directing San Miguel Foods Inc. (SMFI) to refrain from further undertaking development activities other than those now ongoing in the controversial 144-hectare farmland it bought from the Quisumbing family in Sumilao, Bukidnon, pending resolution of the case.

WHAT was supposed to be an international trade show for real estate turned out differently: Philippine impoverishment became the show itself.

CITY OF MALOLOS—Finally, Bulakeños may quench their thirst with water from the very source Metro Manilans get theirs.

THE Global Crop Diversity Trust (GCDT) has committed to set aside $8 million to help conserve and distribute germplasm or seeds in the gene bank of the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (Icrisat).