CAMP Winnie Martillana, Pili, CamSur -- Thousands of hectares of agricultural lands in remote mountain villages in the province have been given by the communist rebels to their farmer beneficiaries under their “revolutionary agrarian reform” in the 1970s and 1980s in the Bicol region.

Army 42nd Infantry Battalion commander Lt. Col. Ernesto Cruz at a media forum in this camp last week said the burning of a poultry farm in Sitio  Dinumpilan, Bgy. Malinao in Libmanan town stemmed from claims of local communist rebels that some 100 hectares of land owned by local businessman Allan Olivan have been distributed by the rebel movement its “rebolusyonariong-agrario” to over 50 farmer beneficiaries since 1980s.

Cruz said when normalcy returned to the locality after the Army put up a station.

The younger Olivan, who inherited the estate from his father Benito, put up a poultry  in 2010 after amicably settling the property with NPA installed tenants. Over 25 families, however, opposed Olivan’s claim to the land.

Recently, the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) intervened in the land dispute but has been ineffective in dealing with the leftist farmers.

Cruz said Olivan is reporteldy asked by the rebels to pay P100,000 annually in taxes for the poultry farm and nearly a hundred hectares of coconut plantation but the businessman refused to pay.

He added the NPA agrarian system implements “terciong baliktad,  or “70% ng ani galing sa lupa napupunta sa tenants, iyong 30 percent naman para sa mga rebelde.” However, the land owners do not get anything from the produce.

The Army top-brass also said that in Tinambac town rebels implemented the agrarian sharing in coconut  plantations, landowners, who claimed to own some 500 hectares failed to get any share from their lands for almost 30 years.

Reportedly, even the DAR have failed to implement their programs in previously covered “revolutionary agrarian lands.”