It’s a case of complete strangers not only entering your house but claiming portions of it.

We Visayans, like most decent Filipinos, are known for our hospitality. We are gracious hosts, often to a fault.

But such hospitality should not be abused because it runs counter to good manners or simply good taste.    

And yet this is simply what happened to a landed Ilonggo lady who sought Ped Xing’s help in telling her sad story and seeking administrative relief regarding an agrarian case.    

Hacienda Claudio, a sugar estate  in Iloilo subjected to the Comprehensive

Agrarian Reform Program sought the help of Department of Agrarian Reform Secretary Virgilio de los Angeles  regarding what the estate said were the installation of 78 farmer beneficiaries who were neither employed before or from the place.

In a letter personally delivered to Angeles’s office at the DAR office in Quezon City, Francesca Golez, daughter of the late Elena Jison Golez, president of the companies that owned the 124-hectare Hacienda Claudio in Barotac Nuevo, Iloilo, complained that the DAR Region 6 office has installed the farmer beneficiaries whose inclusion have earlier been opposed by Mrs. Golez when she was still alive.

Golez, in a petition for disqualification , filed before Arthur Fenis, MARO of Barotac Nuevo, Iloilo, on June 20, 2003, said that the list of farmer-beneficiaries “are not residents of the farm “ and “never worked in the farm.”

The late Golez, who died last year, was earlier named authorized representative being the president of Isabel Upland Valley Resources, Inc., Marc Golden Grains, Inc., and Marc Kanlaon Agri-Marine Corp, the companies that owned the Hacienda Claudio. She also was authorized to petition the DAR for the disqualification of the farmer-beneficiaries who were neither employed nor from the place and in their place have the real employees and residents of the sugar estate.

In a letter to De los Reyes, Francesca Golez sought the government agency’s help in including the real employees and residents of Hacienda Claudio who are entitled to being part owners of the sugar estate as per the CARP.

“My mother constantly reminded us that we should never forget the people who have worked and tilled these sugar lands because they have been working for our family for over several generations,” Golez said.

“We stand with them not because we used to own the land, but because we recognize how much Hacienda Claudio means to them and their families.        

It is but right that the beneficiaries of Hacienda Claudio go to those who have tilled the land,” she added.

She also warned of a possible bloodshed should the real beneficiaries be stripped of their rights to own the land.

“We will not stand as innocent lives are pawned to maliciously benefit those who are in good favor with the current administration. Dahil alam namin na hindi ito tuwid na landas.”

Golez also hinted at political undertones in the exclusion of the real farmer-beneficiaries under the CARP, citing the fact that the installation of farmer-beneficiaries who are not supposes to be entitled to co-own the land will “benefit certain politicians whose only objective is to influence the outcome of succeeding elections”.

Oo nga pala, Iloilo is quite near a province known for mythical flesh-eating and blood-sucking winged creatures. They are not called flying voters but their nocturnal sorties can have terrifying effects.         

She also said that the current situation at the Hacienda Claudio “is highly volatile” and may “spiral out of control” as the government refuses to acknowledge the rightful farmer beneficiaries of the CARP.

The lady is simply asking for tabang or bulig not so much for her own sake but for the interests of the rightful CARP claimants to her family’s property.

If that doesn’t constitute social conscience, Ped Xing doesn’t  know what does.