Struggle for Land, Justice Continues Under Aquino as More Luisita-Like Cases Emerge

Is there hope for the farmers of Hacienda Balatong under the new administration?

The KMP does not think so.

“Our dreams have turned into a nightmare because of Aquino’s supposed ‘hands-off’ policy at Hacienda Luisita,” Lito Bais, acting president of United Luisita Workers Union and vice chair of Ambala told Bulatlat. Bais said Aquino’s attitude toward the Luisita agrarian dispute serves as an example of what peasants would have to go through in their struggle for land, especially those who are suffering in the hands of members of his Kamag-anak, Inc.

Hacienda Yulo

However, it is not only the farmers who are struggling against the Cojuangco clan who are suffering. The same fate is being confronted by other peasants in large landholdings as well. Danilo Ramos, secretary general of KMP said Aquino, since he won in the elections, has become “a symbol of local feudalism and puppetry to US imperialism.”

The farmers of Hacienda Yulo, for example, are also engaged in an uphill battle. The Yulo family, said Axel Pinpin of Kasama-TK, is a “political prostitute.” They have been able to secure their claim over the 7,100-hectare through the administrations of Ferdinand Marcos, Corazon Aquino, Fidel Ramos, Joseph Estrada and Gloria Arroyo. Since Aquino is a big landlord himself, peasants of Hacienda Yulo believe that his administration would be no different.

The struggle between the farmers and the Yulo family intensified yet again on May 21, 2010 when the latter sent hired men to Sitio Buntod, a sub-village in the hacienda, to cut the coconut trees, which were the source of livelihood of the farmers. The farmers resisted by setting up barricades. Dan Calvo, an architect working for the Yulo family, ordered the police to arrest the residents, resulting in a violent scuffle. Eleven residents were arrested on that day and five among them were charged with grave coercion, direct assault, alarm and scandal, and serious resistance and disobedience. They were released on May 25 after posting bail amounting to P6,000 per person.

After the dispersal and arrest of the farmers, tension intensified in the hacienda. Reynanto De Leon, 23, vice president of Kabataan na Nagkakaisa sa Buntog, a local youth organization in Hacienda Yulo, was advised not to go home for a while due to security reasons. Since Aquino became president, De Leon has been staying in Manila, regularly joining rallies and protest actions to pursue their struggle for land in Hacienda Yulo, as well as to show their solidarity with farmers from other haciendas, such as Hacienda Luisita. When he returned to Hacienda Yulo on November 2, he was confronted by soldiers who are currently deployed in their area. “They were asking me what organization I belong to,” he told Bulatlat.com.

He was informed that when he was away, soldiers kept asking about him while claiming that he joined the New People’s Army. He was also informed that residents, as young as 16 years old, and even a 10-year-old child, are being recruited by the military to spy on peasant organizations in Hacienda Yulo. The military also reportedly held film showings of the “Knowing the Enemy” to minors. In the said film, the military accused progressive organizations of being part of the Communist Party of the Philippines and its armed wing, the NPA.

The peasants of Hacienda Yulo have already submitted to Aquino their issues and demands, which includes a call for the distribution of the land, to put a stop to ,all land use conversion activities in the Yulo estates and to immediately pull out the Army and police forces from the hacienda.

Aquino, as of this writing, has made no concrete action to address the needs of the peasants of Hacienda Yulo, despite the continuing threats of eviction. Pinpin said Aquino’s only “official response” so far was the violent dispersal of the peasants’ camp-out in Mendiola on July 3 that led to the mass arrest of 41 farmworkers, including peasants from Hacienda Yulo.

Killings, Human Rights Violations

As farmers pursue their struggle for land, they have become targets of extrajudicial, summary, and arbitrary killings, which were being committed in the name of counterinsurgency operations. Majority of the victims of Oplan Bantay Laya, the bloody counterinsurgency program of the Arroyo government that claimed the lives of more than a thousand civilians, mostly members of progressive organization, were peasants, said Tanggol Magsasaka, a peasants rights’ organization.

During the first 100 days of the Aquino administration, 11 of the 20 victims of extrajudicial killings were peasants.

The first extrajudicial killing under the Aquino administration last July 9 claimed the life of peasant leader Pascual Guevarra in Nueva Ecija. Guevarra was leading a campaign for the distribution of a parcel of land inside Fort Magsaysay. The military is resisting the land distribution. This was followed closely by the killing of farmers Julius Tamondes and Naldo Labrador of Paquibato District, Davao City on August 12 and September 3, respectively. Then, the September 7 massacre in Mobo, Masbate took place, which left four farmers killed namely, Vicente Flores, Richard Oliva, Melencio Monacelio and Jonathan Monacelio, a 21-year-old high school student.

Another farmer Vicente Felisilda of Compostela Valley was killed on September 9. Felisilda was a copra farmer and a member of progressive party-list organization, Bayan Muna. Two more were killed in Antipolo, Rizal, a certain Robert and Junior. Another farmer Rene “Toto” Quirante, chairman of Kaugma-on, a local chapter of KMP, was shot dead around 2:00 a.m. of October 1 in Sitio Amomoyong, Barangay Trinidad Guihulngan, Negros Oriental, reportedly by soldiers from the 11th Infantry Batallion of the Philippine Army.

Militarization in both Hacienda Yulo and Luisita has also intensified this year. In fact, Balikatan exercises, a joint military exercises by the Philippines and the U.S. military would be held in the area of responsibility of the Philippine Army Northern Luzon Command, where Hacienda Luisita is located

U.S. soldiers were also reportedly talking with village officials in three barangays, namely Bantog, Mapalacsiao and Parang, where they would construct a three-story building that will serve as an evacuation and health center for residents.

Bais said the holding the Balikatan exercises in Hacienda Luisita is “definitely a plan of the US-Cojuangco-Aquino (regime) to crush the so-called insurgency (in our province). He said it is ultimately aimed at resolving the agrarian dispute, which has been going on for more than half a century already, through force and intimidation. Despite the threats, farmers in Hacienda Luisita continue to till the land they rightfully own while remaining vigilant regarding the moves of the Cojuangco-Aquino family.

Clearly, what happened in 2010, including after the Aquino administration came to power, do not bode well for peasants. Even the much-trumpeted extension of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program with reforms amounted to nothing as not a single hectare of land has been distributed during its first year of implementation. President Aquino’s unwillingness to act decisively in implementing agrarian reform provides no hope that peasants would own the land they have been tilling for generations. In stead, killings, harassment, and evictions of peasants have been continuing.

With this, peasant groups vowed that they would intensify their campaigns this coming 2011. “Aquino is an anti-peasant president,” Bais told Bulatlat.com, “This is why we will make sure that our voices would be heard.”