Land Bank president arrested

Land Bank of the Philippines president Margarito Teves was arrested by police yesterday afternoon over a dispute with landowners on the disposition of 53 hectares of rice and corn land in Nueva Ecija.

Teves, a former Negros Oriental congressman and former secretary general of the defunct Economic Coordinating Council (ECC), was arrested on the order of Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) Nueva Ecija provincial adjudicator Napoleon Baguilat.

Teves, who was brought to the Manila police headquarters on UN Avenue, said there were still legal issues to be resolved in the land dispute and he was only fulfilling his duty to protect land reform beneficiaries.

"If this is the price for protecting the farmers, then so be it," Teves said while he was awaiting processing at the office of WPD director Chief Superintendent Nicolas Pasiños.

Land Bank director and former agrarian reform activist Jaime Tadeo vowed he would seek an investigation on the possible "collusion" allegedly between DAR adjudicators and big landowners.

According to the order, Teves was arrested for failing to appear before a hearing of the DAR adjudication board (DARAB) to explain why he had not complied with an earlier DAR order directing him to deposit some P75 million as compensation for the rice and corn land.

"(But) this will mean P1.4 million per hectare. How could an ordinary farmer pay for that amount? It will take him his whole lifetime tilling the land and he still would not be able to pay that P1.4 million," said Teves, who authored the Agri-Agra Law when he was still a member of Congress.

Land Bank officials also contend that the rice and corn lands were already placed under land reform in 1972 and had already been paid for under valuation required by Presidential Decree No. 27.

Under its valuation in 1972, Land Bank valued the 53 hectares of land at some P3 million, or about P56,000 per hectare, which has already been fully paid.

However, the landowners, led by a certain Loreto Santos, argue that their lands should be covered under the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Law and they should be paid some P75 million although they had already been supposedly paid P3 million.

But Land Bank vice president for corporate affairs Conrado Roxas said the legal issues in the land dispute still need to be settled and he questioned the propriety of the arrest order on Teves.

Roxas said the bank’s lawyers are questioning the manner by which Baguilat issued the arrest order and hinted that they may file charges against Baguilat and the DAR provincial adjudication board.

"They did not even provide for bail in their order when the case isn’t even a capital offense," Roxas said, adding that the deputy sheriff who supposedly brought the arrest order to the WPD Warrants Section could not even be found at the station.

Roxas said Land Bank lawyers asked the DARAB to convene at the regional level to overturn Baguilat’s order which, they said, may constitute a "grave abuse of discretion."

DAR sources said Agrarian Reform Secretary Hernani Braganza was expected to appear to straighten out the confusion but had not yet arrived at the WPD as of 8 last night

Meanwhile, Land Bank employees staged a lightning picket at the WPD courtyard demanding the release of Teves.

As Negros Oriental representative, Teves served as the chairman of the influential House committee on economic affairs. He ran an independent think-tank after three terms in Congress.

Teves, a respected economist, was then tapped by former President Joseph Estrada to be a member of the powerful ECC, chaired by then Finance Secretary Jose Pardo, which was credited with providing the policy direction that helped the country weather the repercussions of the 1997 Asian financial crisis.