Peasant camp site in Cabangaan

Photo by Dennis Espada

SILANG, Cavite – What was once a quiet village here has become the center of tension as a powerful actor-turned-politician tries to press residents into leaving their homes.

Unless the land dispute over Cabangaan, a 25-hectare land owned by former senator and Public Estates Authority (PEA) chair Ramon Revilla Sr., is resolved, what is now a tense atmosphere could turn bloody.

Known in moviedom as “Nardong Putik,” Revilla is now a retired senator.

Saturation drives

At early dawn last Feb. 5, around 300 heavily-armed members of the Philippine National Police (PNP)-Silang, together with the Regional Mobile Group, Regional Investigation Unit, Cavite Criminal Investigation and Detection Team and the military,
raided 42 houses in the area. The raid was led by Police Supt. Nestor Mendoza and a certain Colonel Soriano. The residents were then subjected to zoning or saturation drives.

Witnesses said the raiders were in full battle gear and wore fatigue uniform but their nameplates were concealed.

Diane Mariano, deputy secretary-general of the human rights watch group Cavite Ecumenical Movement for Justice and Peace (CEMJP), told Bulatlat that the raiding team tried to intimidate the peasants so they could drive them away from the land.

Mariano also accused the raiding team of "illegal search and seizure as well as destruction and divestment of private properties" during the incident.

Nine days later, Ricardo Crusido who identified himself as a deputized sheriff warned residents that he will implement a writ of demolition any time soon.

Residents then began to pile logs and banana trunks as roadblocks to prevent bulldozers and trucks from entering their area. They also held vigils to protect the community from any untoward incidents.

On Feb. 14, the Department of Agrarian Reform Adjudication Board (DARAB) issued a temporary restraining order (TRO) that prohibits the implementation of the writ of demolition within 20 days.

Long battle for land

Caridad Mercado, 76, the oldest tenant in the village, said their ancestors first moved to Cabangaan shortly after the Taal Volcano's eruption in 1911. Back then, the 25-hectare land was densely forested.

Through the years, tillers had converted the land into a productive field of rice, coconut and vegetables.

In 1972, the property was acquired by Revilla from Emiliano Asuncion, a brother of the town's former mayor. Part of the deal was the retention of the 70-30 sharecropping agreement with the tenant farmers.

By the end of the decade, coconut and palay were replaced by coffee trees that became the major agricultural crop based on a tax declaration under Revilla's name. In 1991, he imposed the fixed-rental scheme where tenants would pay him P1,500 ($27.28, based on an exchange rate of P54.99 per US dollar) per hectare every year. By 1995, however, Revilla reportedly told farmers to stop paying rent.

"Hindi ko kailangan ang pera n'yo dahil marami na ako nito” (I don't need your money because I already have plenty of it), 59-year-old tenant farmer Edong Mercado quoted Revilla as saying.

Despite this, Mercado still recognized their obligation to pay their debts and rentals for their stay in the land.

Mercado recalled: "Hinatid pa namin sa mismong bahay niya (Revilla) sa Imus ang dalawampung sako ng kapeng tuyo bilang interes at bayad sa aming utang, pero tinanggihan niya ito” (We even brought to his house 20 sacks of dried coffee as interest and principal payment but he refused to accept it).

On May 10 last year, Revilla met with at least 20 tenant farmers in a mansion inside his 8-hectare ranch. Mercado said the former senator forced them to sign a waiver in which they will unconditionally vacate the land within six months or when it is needed by the landlord.

The farmers protested and this proved to be the start of the ongoing legal battle.

Support from other sectors

The Cabangaan peasants' struggle for land, meanwhile, has found allies among Catholic religious congregations of neighboring Tagaytay City and other sectors in the community.

The Samahan ng Magsasaka sa Cabangaan (Samaca or Peasant Association in Cabangaan) has also demanded that the farmers be recognized as legitimate land tenants; for farmers to pay the rentals based on a leasehold agreement and for them to continuously till the land.

Teodoro Garcia, Samaca Chair and vice president of Kalipunan ng mga Magsasaka sa Kabite (Kamagsasaka-Ka, or Peasant Alliance in Cavite), said he has sought the help of Cavite Gov. Erineo Maliksi, but to no avail.

"He refused to help us, saying we would lose our fight because Revilla is his kumpare” (godfather of one’s child in baptism, confirmation or marriage), Garcia recalled, as he showed to this writer what was left of their pineapple crops which were crushed and uprooted by soldiers and policemen.

The tenant farmers and their families are now pinning their hopes on their collective unity. "The Department of Agrarian Reform should stop conniving with the police and military to criminalize the peasants who are struggling for their legitimate rights," Garcia said. “For a very long time, we found no reason to trust the government's agrarian reform program," Garcia said.

"As our elders said, here in this land we were born; here, too we shall die. To die fighting for this land is sweet," he said. Bulatlat

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