Francesca said her whole family was at the front line of the people guarding their village. She shared that they were not deterred by the number of policemen confronting them.
“Dan Calvo went out of the car. He told us that we have no right not to let them pass through our village because it was not ours to begin with,” Mario, son of Francesca, said. Calvo is an architect who also acts as the representative of the Yulo family.
Mario added that the people hoped for peaceful negotiations with Calvo and the rest of the armed group he brought with him. But based from how Calvo greeted them that day, Mario said, they sensed that there was going to be trouble . And it did.
Calvo and the residents of Sitio Buntod ended up shouting at each other when the people did not want to let them pass through their barricade. Eventually, Mario said, Calvo became so frustrated and ordered the police to arrest them. “We did not even have the opportunity to negotiate with the police. It appeared to us that Calvo was ordering them around,” Mario said.
The police officers then started grabbing, arresting and handcuffing them. Francesca said Calvo also ordered the arrest of the twenty students from the University of Philippines who were having their exposure trip in Hacienda Yulo. “I was pulling them back because the police were pulling them away.”
In the middle of the dispersal, Francesca saw that her son Mario was already handcuffed to the rail of the police vehicle. “I do not want to leave my son so I joined him,” Francesca said, adding that Mario’s wife Dorotea, 46, and nephew Jorge, 12, also went with her.
The four of them were brought to a district hospital along with Maria Garcia, 39, Annabel Natanauan, 28, Gilbert Caraan, 25, Lamberto Caraan, 40, Roger Nedia, 16, Jhefe De Leon, 15 and Melvin Natanauan, 16. “We were given prescriptions but the police did not buy medicines,” Mario said, adding that their wounds were only “checked” not treated.
From the hospital, the children were brought to the Department of Social Welfare and Development while the adults were brought to the city jail to be detained. “We were not informed about our rights (referring to the Miranda Doctrine). Instead we were told to shut up or they (the police) would hit us,” Mario said, adding that they kept on asking the police where they would be brought.
Around 5:00 p.m. of the following day, Francesca was released. But others remained in jail. Later, they were told that five charges including Grave Coercion, Direct Assault, Alarm and Scandal, and Serious Resistance and Disobedience were filed against them. On May 25, Lamberto Caraan, Mario Mangubat, Marcia Garcia, Dorotea Mangubat and Gilbert Caraan were released from jail after posting bail amounting to P6,000 per person.
Another Tragedy
During the 24 hours that Francesca was detained in the city jail, she did not know what was happening outside the police precinct.
“I later learned that my husband Quirino was arguing with Calvo. Calvo accused my husband of being an ingrate,” Francesca said, adding that her husband used to work for the Yulos as a gardener.
Their neighbors immediately brought Quirino to a clinic, where he regained consciousness. However, he was still unable to talk. On May 23, Francesca had her husband checked at Calamba Doctors Hospital where was admitted for five days. The doctors said Quirino had a hemorrhagic stroke in the left part of his brain causing a paralysis in the right part of his body. The Mangubat family had to borrow money because their hospital bill amounted to P20,000.
Conflicting Claims
At present, the Mangubat family is cultivating less than a hectare of land. The same is true for other families who are fighting for their rightful claim to the land. Francesca said she could not imagine why the Yulo family would deny them their rights to the small parcels of land they have been tilling when they already have so much.
A fact-finding and solidarity mission spearheaded by KMP, church groups and peasants’ rights advocates, held from June 2 to 3, learned, through interviews, that the Yulo family plans to develop Sitio Buntod as a golf course because it is located near the Tagaytay Highlands, an elite residential subdivision.
“This land is of national interest,” Axel Pinpin of Kasama-TK said, citing that the conversion of these agricultural lands are in line with the globalization framework of the Philippine economy. In fact, Pinpin said, the claim of the Yulo family to the land comprising Hacienda Yulo is weak because most of the lands here are now owned by Ayala Corporation and Henry Sy of SM Holdings.
Agrarian Reform
The petition of the farmers to include Hacienda Yulo in the government’s Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program was denied, according to the case report dated October 6, 1991, which was prepared by Myrna P. Villalba of the Municipality Agrarian Reform Office. The case was subsequently forwarded to the office of Department Agrarian Reform regional director Wilfredo Leano who upheld Villalba’s decision and report.
According to Villalba’s report, an ocular inspection was conducted on Hacienda Yulo and it was determined that the land is highly suitable for agriculture, attributed to the fact that there are coconut trees, fruit-bearing trees, coffee and other forest trees present. But these trees, read the report, were planted by farmers hired as agricultural workers. This was belied by the farmers who said that they planted the coconut trees themselves. They were subsequently hired by the Yulo family to harvest the coconut.
Pinpin said the strongest statement the farmers could make to assert their claim to the land is to continue tilling the land and make it productive. This would make it more difficult for the Yulo family to drive them away and eventually the petition to place the land under agrarian reform would be stronger.
“We will be confrontational if needed,” Pinpin said, adding that the struggle is bound to intensify three to five years from now.
Not isolated
Anakpawis Rep. Mariano who also went to Sitio Buntod said he and the rest of the progressive bloc in the 15th Congress will be re-filing the Genuine Agrarian Reform Bill to help resolve not only the Hacienda Yulo land dispute but other land cases as well.
In Region 4, Southern Tagalog, Hacienda Yulo is only one of the haciendas (plantations) with land disputes. Among other haciendas under land disputes are Hacienda Looc, Roxas and Puyat. The peasants in these haciendas are fighting against land-use conversion, the failure of CARP to fully distribute the land, and the cancellation of Emancipation Patents, Certificates of Land Ownership Agreement and Certificates of Land Transfer.
