Agrarian violence claiming farmers’ lives in Negros

JOURNALISTS and political activists are not the only ones succumbing to extra-judicial killings that have been happening almost on a daily basis.

Two days ago, Mario Domingo, farmer-leader of Task Force Mapalad (TFM), was shot to death by heavily armed men who were positively identified as followers of Farley and Rhodora Gustilo, former landowners of the foreclosed Hacienda Cambuktot in La Castellana, Negros Occidental.

Domingo’s murder comes in the wake of the killing a month ago of another farm worker and TFM peasant organizer, Rico Adeva, in Talisay City by three gunmen that witnesses have linked to a former rebel group now reportedly collaborating with landowners to harass farmer-beneficiaries under the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP). Adeva sustained 10 gunshot wounds and was with his wife, Nenita, when the shooting occurred.

The recent killings of Domingo and Adeva have brought to six the number of farmers’ lives already claimed by agrarian reform-related violence this year, particularly in the hacienda-stronghold of Negros Occidental. The victims include:

• Vicente Denila, member of the Pambansang Ugnayan ng mga Nagsasariling Lokal na Organisasyon sa Kanayunan (UNORKA), shot dead on March 27 in Sitio Cansuy-ong, Novallas, Tanjay City

• Porferio Maglasang, municipal leader of the Pambansang Katipunan ng Makabayang Magbubukid (PKMM), shot dead on April 22 in Kabankalan, Negros Occidental

• Enrico “Ka Eric” Cabanit, chairman of WADECOR Employees Agrarian Reform Beneficiaries Association and secretary-general of UNORKA, shot, together with his daughter, in a public market in Panabo City, Davao del Norte on April 24

• Jimmy Mirafuente, UNORKA member, who was killed in Daraga, Albay last April 27

TFM counts six more of its members who have died since 2001, namely:

• Farmer-beneficiary Ronilo Vasquez, reportedly killed by goons of Gustilo in February 2001 in Hacienda Cambuktot, La Castellana

• Indak Espartero, CLOA holder, shot to death reportedly by goons of former landowner Miguel J. Lacson Corp. in Hacienda San Benito, Moises Padilla on May 3, 2003

• 60-year-old Teresa Mameng, reportedly killed by goons of former landlord Mario Villanueva on September 3, 2004 in Hacienda Conchita Villanueva in La Castellana

• Agustin Flores, killed on November 1, 2004 in Hacienda Maytubig, Isabela

• 31-year-old Winifredo Matahum, murdered on January 15, 2005 in Hacienda San Martin in Sagay City and Escalante

• Farmer-leader Delia de Castro, 52, killed in front of her home in San Isidro, Davao Oriental on May 13, 2005

Agrarian disputes in Negros resulting from farmers claiming ownership rights to hacienda lands placed under CARP coverage have also resulted in scores of farmers getting injured in armed attacks, forced evictions and demolitions of their homes, arrests and detentions, and a host of criminal and civil cases filed by former landowners. (See TFM’s list of agrarian-related violence cases from February 2001 to May 2006 here.)

Scoring the Arroyo administration for its “worst record of agrarian violence and human rights violations against farmer-beneficiaries,” TFM said it is pinning the responsibility for the death of Domingo, Adeva and its other leaders and members on Malacañang and the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR).

Following Adeva’s death, TFM has sought the intervention of Malacañang in the growing cases of killings of its members, issuing an appeal to Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo when she visited Bacolod City last April 28 for the “Panaad” festival. But TFM’s pleas have seemingly fallen on deaf ears.

Earlier, in 2003, the peasant group also sent Arroyo a letter urging her to put an end to the violence perpetrated by anti-CARP landowners against helpless farmers but which also merited no response.

Alarmed by the spate of agrarian reform-related violence, Akbayan party-list representatives have filed House Resolution No. 1248 calling for an investigation on the deaths of farmer-leaders and CARP beneficiaries belonging to TFM and UNORKA, prominent federations of peasant organizations that are affiliated with the party-list group.

“Agrarian violence takes on an added facet,” said Rep. Loretta Ann Rosales, “because it is simply not political activists who are being killed but poor, rural folks who are deep in the struggle to finally claim their land against recalcitrant landlords who refuse to give up control of their fiefdoms.”

Rosales pointed to the military and landlords as the primary suspects in the killing of Akbayan’s peasant leaders and members, saying that “they have fallen prey to this culture of utter disrespect for the rule of law because government has remained insensitive to their plight and failed to resolve the murders of activists.”

The murders, she said, belies the government’s claim that only a few hundred thousand hectares of land are up for redistribution under CARP, which is now on its 18th year of implementation. According to DAR, only 730,000 hectares out of the 4.3 million hectares of lands remain to be covered by the agrarian reform program.

“There is a much, much bigger figure out there, and there are still a lot of groups and individuals out there — private armies, landlords and their military cohorts — who will not hesitate to use arms to enforce the status quo of misery and poverty on farmers.”