Vehicle of DAR provincial officer shot

By DAR

NUEVA VIZCAYA – (Mar. 17, 2021) — Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) Secretary Brother John R. Castriciones has cautioned all field officials and employees to be alert at all times, following an incident involving DAR-Nueva Vizcaya provincial agrarian reform program officer Dindi Tan, whose car was found to have been shot last Tuesday.

Police are still facing a blank wall as to who or which group may have been responsible for the shooting incident where a slug of a 38-caliber revolver was found in a bullet hole on its side. Nobody has yet claimed responsibility for the incident.

While it was considered an isolated incident, Brother John is not taking any chances even as he encourages all DAR officials and employees to continue doing their job, “but be extra careful.’

“That incident should not deter us from doing our job of emancipating small farmers from the bondage of the soil and helping uplift their economic condition,” Bro. John stressed in a statement.

Tan said she is still in a state of shock while trying to recall past incidents on whether she had done something that may have offended somebody to warrant such incident.

The provincial agrarian reform program officer, however, hinted that some groups may have resented the latest program of the government to include rebel-returnees among the potential beneficiaries of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program.

Next month, the DAR is set to distribute Certificates of Land Ownership Award to several rebel-returnees in the province, a move aimed at giving them a chance to live a normal life again while encouraging their former comrades to follow their footsteps and return to the mainstream of the society.

Initial police assessment shows that the gunman equipped his gun with a silencer when he/she fired on the car before dawn Tuesday at close range. The car was parked in front of the DAR provincial office at the time of the shooting incident.

The DAR provincial office had CCTV camera, but the gunman appeared to be aware of it and positioned himself/herself outside its coverage area. An examination of the footages show that the gunman was nowhere to be seen. (DAR)