ABS-CBN’s Real-Life Tear-Jerker
Farmers Accuse TV Foundation, 
MWSS of Human Rights Violations

A group of farmers from Rodriguez, Rizal have threatened to sue the country’s largest TV network, water authorities and securities for forcibly evicting them from their land last week in the guise of ‘environment protection.’

By Gerry Albert-Corpuz
Bulatlat.com

RODRIGUEZ, Montalban-Rizal -- From reel life drama to real-life story. ABS-CBN, the country's largest TV network which makes millions viewers cry through their line-up of tear jerkers such as "Pangako Sa Yo," "Kaytagal Kang Hinintay," "Sa Dulo ng Walang Hanggan” and "Sa Puso Ko Iingatan Ka" broke poor farmers' hearts last week -- this time not through its primetime staple of telenovelas, but in real life.

In two successive days – Aug. 3 and 4 – security forces from the Manila Water Works and Sewerage System (MWSS), the ABS-CBN's Bantay Kalikasan's partner in the La Mesa Watershed project, stormed a peasant community and demolished the houses of 25 farmer families, uprooted their crops and, a report by the Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP – Peasant Movement in the Philippines) and other groups said, went on a looting spree.

Producers’ cut

The report by KMP, Kasama-TK, a regional peasant alliance in Southern Tagalog and Kalikasan-People's Network for the Environment, said the demolition took place at Area 4, Sitio Seedling in Barangay Macabud, Rodriguez (formerly Montalban town) in Rizal.

The area, the report said, is part of the 2,700-hectare La Mesa watershed but is being claimed by MWSS and the ABS-CBN Foundation in the guise of "community-based watershed rehabilitation, development and protection.” La Mesa supplies water to Metro Manila consumers and neighboring towns.

Audrey de Jesus, a KMP national staff, said the eviction of farmers “is not a simple case of art imitating life (but) plain corporate takeover because of sheer greed for land and profits."

The event could have merited a special report on any ABS-CBN's magazine shows like "The Correspondents” or “Producer's Cut" but the giant TV network chose to stay away from the scene, De Jesus said.

Under fire, under protest, under siege

Recounting the event, the KMP said at around 8 a.m. Aug. 3, five members of the Star Security Agency and MWSS stormed Area 4 without a demolition order. The blue guards, the group said, harassed the farmers, pointed guns at them and “stole the farmers' property including food, rice and money.” In a commotion as the residents tried to prevent the guards from demolishing their houses, one farmer was hit with the flat side of a bolo.

Past 9 a.m. the following day, 18 blue guards came, six of them harassing and taking the farmers’ belongings and razing their houses. By 10:30 a.m., all 25 houses were destroyed leaving more than 100 people homeless, the KMP report said.

The KMP said four farmers were forcibly taken by Star Security guards to the MWSS office in Lagro, Quezon City, where they were verbally abused, their pictures taken and forced at gunpoint to sign a document.

The MWSS and the ABS-CBN Foundation came under fire from peasant groups for alleged human rights violations, the demolition of houses and destruction of crops. The groups are planning to file cases of human rights violations and other criminal charges against the water company, the owners of the foundation and the security agency involved in the eviction of Macabud peasants.

KMP secretary general Danilo Ramos said the La Mesa Watershed project is not all about planting of trees and water conservation. In the guise of environmental protection, government authorities are giving license to corporate giants to grab peasants' lands for their own profit and land accumulation, he said.

Ramos disputed MWSS’ and ABS-CBN’s claim that the farmers are squatters. "The peasants were there since time immemorial,” he said. “The Lopez clan and MWSS have no right to take the lands away from the Macabud peasants."

The KMP secretary general also assailed the use of goons and terror against the defenseless peasant residents.

Probe

In a protest picket outside the main office of MWSS in U.P. Balara, Quezon City, peasant activists from KMP and Kasama-TK and Macabud farmer pressed the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) to investigate the illegal demolition and human rights violations against the peasant families by MWSS security guards.

"The DENR must take immediate action,” Ramos said. “The people are demanding a quick investigation of the case and want the department to file appropriate charges against proponents and security forces of the La Mesa Watershed project."

"The Lopez family is nothing but a clan of big landlords dressed in philanthropist clothing and a blind eye must not be turned to their latest land grabbing scheme,” he said.

The militant leader said aside from MWSS and ABS-CBN Foundation, other companies "appearing as donors" for the project are Bank of America, San Miguel Corporation (SMC) and the Ayala-Zobel group of companies led by Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI), the largest network of banks in the country.

Ramos said the La Mesa Watershed project is integrated in the eco-tourism project envisioned by the national government in the area with the corporations proclaiming themselves as protectors of the environment, as "funders." Bulatlat.com

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