A Call for Nasser Pangandaman Resignation

The recent incident involving two public figures no less than Department of Agrarian Reform Secretary Nasser Pangandaman and his son, Mayor of Masiu, Lanao del Sur revealed how gross power can make of officials without the moorings of modesty and decency. (In the said incident, the Pangandamans and cohorts reportedly beat up a 56-year-old golfer and his 14-year-old jungolfer son. This was after the alleged spat over a golf etiquette. Very unbecoming, the fact that it occurred in a place considered by true-blue golfers as 'gentlemen's ground.)

The public must have been surprised at what happened. We were not; for we have known from the start what mean things Mr. Pangandaman is capable of doing:

* He calls peasants taking his leadership to account as fake farmers. He did this at least to farmers of Negros and Sumilao, Bukidnon.

* He is short-tempered and impatient in his encounters with the farmers.

* He is given to bribery as a means to placate the very critical and militant farmers. He tried to do this to a farmer of Laguna.

* He signs orders and circulars with his eyes closed. He did this many times, including that involving 7,000-hectare Hacienda Yulo which his Department affirmed as exempted from agrarian reform and up for conversion into industrial and residential use even though this prime agricultural land has not yet been so converted since 1993.

* He sleeps on the hundreds of land cases long filed at the Department.

* He can play dirty politics while at the helm of the Department, just as he did it before he took the DAR leadership post. Based on an expose in 2007, he has at his disposal DAR's resources to perpetuate his political interests.

We could not believe why the Pangandamans could afford to enjoy the holidays that way, in the wake of the emaciation of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP), thanks to Congress' and Senate's resolution to extend CARP by six months and exclude compulsory acquisition from the land transfer schemes. Besides, the incident reminds us of many golf courses into which agricultural lands nationwide were converted. Most likely, there were farmers disenfranchised by the construction of the Valley Golf.

But we do believe that one major reason why the Senate in particular did not vote for a longer extension of CARP is that it held the Department accountable for graft and corruption that characterized the program over the years.

Since last year, we have called for the resignation of Mr. Pangandaman as DAR Secretary on the abovecited bases.

We urge the public to join us in this call. The farmers and the public do not deserve this kind of leader.