Havoc in Hacienda Looc

More than 29 battalions of troops are scouring Southern Tagalog provinces against the New People’s Army. In one of their operations, soldiers stationed at Hacienda Looc, Nasugbu, Batangas reportedly threatened to shoot two students from the University of the Philippines who were doing practicum in the village, accusing them of being NPA members. But the incident, peasant leaders said last week, was part of “clearing operations" being conducted by government forces to make way for the US-Philippine Balikatan war exercises in the region.

By Alexander Martin Remollino 
Bulatlat.com

It was 9:30 in the evening of Feb. 27. Neneth Sevilla was in her house with Emafe Alcoda and Chris de Guzman, students of the University of the Philippines’ College of Social Work and Community Development (UP-CSWCD) who had been living with the peasants in Hacienda Looc in Nasugbu, Batangas for five days of rural immersion and practicum in community organizing.

Suddenly she heard someone shout outside. She quickly looked through the window and saw a Sergeant Caranto standing in front of their sari-sari store. Caranto is the commanding officer of the soldiers stationed in the area. The man was heavily drunk, Sevilla told the human rights alliance Karapatan, which documented the incident.

According to Sevilla, Caranto fired two shots into the air and told his men, in Filipino and a little English: “Blow up that house so the people there may die, that’s my order! Those NPAs (referring to the two UP students) are so arrogant, people fighting the government should be buried alive, those UP students, they are so arrogant. If anyone comes out of there, shoot him, kill him!”

Sevilla added that Caranto was accompanied by seven soldiers whom she was able to identify only by their surnames: Mojada, Payta, Ceriso, Belberan, Bidbid, Consumo, and Casanova. With them, she said, were three others believed to be members of the Citizens Armed Force Geographical Unit (Cafgu).

Alcoda, one of the students, said the incident was “mental and psychological abuse” for her. She is convinced the military units stationed in Hacienda Looc should be pulled out.

Militarization and harassment

In a news conference in Quezon City on March 15, leaders of the Ugnayan ng Mamamayan Laban sa Pangwawasak ng Kalupaan ng Hacienda Looc (Umalpas-Ka), Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP), and Anapkawis said Defense Secretary Angelo Reyes and the Balikatan military exercises between the United States and the Philippines were the reasons for the Hacienda Looc harassments.

“More than two company-sized troops from the 740^th Combat Group-Special Operations Wing of the Philippine Air Force led by Col. Romeo Puquis, are presently deployed and are executing harassment in Hacienda Looc,” said Guillermo Bautista, Umalpas-Ka chair. “The Macapagal-Arroyo government has brought her all-out war policy to our land.”

KMP and Anakpawis chair Rafael Mariano, on the other hand, said that the incident was part of the military’s “clearing operations” in Southern Tagalog “in preparation for the US-RP Balikatan exercises to be held in the region and the smooth entry of landgrabbers, like the Manila Southcoast Development Corporation and Fil-Estate.”

Since 1995, the Manila Southcoast Development Corporation and Fil-Estate Golf and Development, Inc. have been planning to “develop” Hacienda Looc into a Harbor Town. When fully built, the Harbor Town resort would include four golf courses and a marina.

Peasant families in Hacienda Looc under the (Umalpas-Ka) have been opposing the “development” plan which, they fear, would displace at least 2,000 of them from the 8,650-hectare land. 

Macapagal-Arroyo and General Reyes, Mariano said, are now working to hold the Balikatan on a nationwide scale. More than 29 battalions of the troops are now deployed in Southern Tagalog, he said.

The Macapagal-Arroyo government has spoken of plans to hold the Balikatan military exercises in Mindoro, Marinduque, Romblon, Palawan, and even Quezon. Reports said local executives in these provinces have been begging for the Balikatan military exercises to be held in their respective areas to counter their insurgency “problems.”

Not the worst

What happened on the evening of Feb. 27 was not the worst the peasants of Hacienda Looc had seen.

At least five farmers of Hacienda Looc were killed in 1997 and 2000 alone. There have also been several cases of harassment and death threats from both military and barangay officials who support the harbor project, with Bautista himself receiving many.

On the evening of March 4, 2000, Terry Sevilla and Roger Alla were shot dead right in Hacienda Looc. The two were members of Umalpas-Ka.

A day before, Umalpas-Ka had staged protests outside the national offices of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) in Quezon City. The peasant alliance had called the DENR to task for lifting its cease-and-desist order on the two real estate firms eyeing Hacienda Looc, thereby allowing them to begin bulldozing a private road in Barangay Looc, one of the four barangays comprising the hacienda.

But Sevilla and Alla were not with the group that staged the protest that day. They and another peasant were walking home from a party in Sitio Cumbento, Barangay Looc when they were mowed down by several armed men about 50 meters from a mobile police outpost. Their companion escaped and, fearing for his life, went into hiding.

Eulogio Clavel, a cousin of Alla, saw the bodies before they were embalmed. He said they bore black spots indicating that they were shot at close range. The painful expressions on their faces, he also said, suggested that they were tortured before being killed. Bulatlat.com

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