Mindanaotoday.com | CMU guards, settlers tension erupts anew
By: URIEL QUILINGUING
Tension at the Central Mindanao University (CMU) campus in Maramag, Bukidnon has erupted Tuesday afternoon, November 21, after security guards tried to drive away farmers who have been erecting makeshift structures within the fenced university area.
Four persons were reported hurt due to beating with sticks and stone-throwing that ensued between the two groups. The melee stopped only when personnel from Maramag Municipal Police Station arrived.
In a statement, the CMU management warned the members of the Buffalo-Tamaraw-Limus (BTL) group pretending to be unaware their entry to the university campus has been declared illegal by the Supreme Court.
CMU President Rolito Eballe said that prior to the October 30, 2023 Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan Elections, BTL members had already encroached area for their Beef Cattle Project site which is visible to the public because it is situated along the Sayre Highway. Makeshift structures were already constructed.
The Beef Cattle Project area will serve as laboratory for teachers under their agriculture, veterinary medicine, and forestry courses, among others.
On October 31, CMU personnel removed the makeshift structures in the presence of police and military personnel, in case the illegal settlers would resist the demolition of their temporary dwellings.
But Maramag Mayor Jose Joel Doromal and Vice Mayor Maribeth Estrella-Lopez arrived and called for dialogue between CMU management and BTL representatives, hoping a peaceful solution could be arrived at. Thus, not all makeshift structures were demolished.
It was in that dialogue where one of the BTL leaders admitted they were occupying a property that rightfully belongs to the CMU, but his members insisted of occupying because they were not aware of the Supreme Court decision.
On August 14, this year, Eballe presided over a news conference where he disclosed that settlers belonging to BTL with the Musuan Inhabitants Landless Farmers Association (MILFA) have encroached CMU’s properties. He was referring to the university’s Field 1, Green Valley, and MusDol (Musuan-Dologon) properties.
CMU was founded in 1910 as a state university for research in the fields of agriculture, forestry, veterinary medicine, and biology to serve the entire southern Philippines. Later, the Commission on Higher Education also declared CMU as center of development in mathematics, environmental science, and teacher education. (30)
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