HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH
Massacre Shooters Go Berserk in
Tarlac; Claim 8th Victim
Shots shattered the
evening calm as a peasant leader, Marcelino Beltran, went out of his house
to greet some “visitors.” The visitors pumped bullets into his body and he
died two hours later – the eighth to fall following the Nov. 16 massacre
of seven farmers at Hacienda Luisita.
BY ABNER BOLOS
Contributed to Bulatlat
| HACIENDA LUISITA,
Tarlac City- It was about 9 p.m. of Dec. 8. With no electricity in the
remote barangay (village) of San Sotero, Sta. Ignacia, Tarlac, the night
was pitch dark. |
 
WARNING:
These photos contain graphic images |
Marcelino Beltran, 53, chairperson of the Alyansa ng Magbubukid
sa Tarlac (Peasant Alliance in Tarlac), just had dinner with his family
and was preparing things to bring for the next day's nationwide peasant
protest against the Hacienda Luisita massacre when dogs started barking in
their yard.
Thinking that visitors have arrived, Beltran, a retired sergeant in the
Philippine military before joining farmers groups, casually went out of
the house to greet them.
|
The Hacienda Luisita picketline remains
standing (upper photo) as strikers watch video documentaries of the
dispersal (lower photo)
Photos by Dabet Castañeda |
What happened after that is narrated by his family. His son, 18-year-old
Mark, told Bulatlat that he heard voices asking his father if he is indeed
Marcelino. Mark scarcely heard his father's reply when bursts of gunfire
rang out, shattering the evening silence.
Dashing outside, Mark and his mother, Simeona, and the other children saw
Beltran sprawled on theground, bloodied but still breathing, a mere 15
meters from the house.
Bleeding in the arms
of his wife, Beltran was able to utter his final words in Ilokano: "Suldado
daggidyay nagpaltog" (Soldiers did the shooting).
|
Family members recount that as they were on board a tricycle to bring
Beltran to the Camiling District Hospital kilometers away, armed men in
fatigue uniform accosted them and asked whether the patient they were
carrying was Beltran. Fearing for their safety, they answered "no." Those
who had shot Beltran were leaving no chance, the beleaguered family
thought.
Beltran died two
hours after the shooting and he never even reached the hospital. He was
the eighth farmer to fall following the Hacienda Luisita massacre that
claimed the lives of seven striking workers.
Family
statement
Reporters covering
the police beat that night were told by authorities that Beltran’s family
had given a statement saying the military was in no way
involved in the killing.
Asked about the supposed statement, Mark said in disbelief, "Why do they
twist our words? I told them that my father told us soldiers shot him. Why
would they lie?"
The answer may be found in Hacienda Luisita, the vast sugar plantation in
this city owned by the family of former president Corazon Cojuangco Aquino,
where on Nov. 16, at the picket line of striking workers, at least seven
people were killed and scores wounded as nearly a thousand elements of the
69th IB, PA and the Philippine National Police moved to break the strike.
The enforcers used water cannons, truncheons, tear gas and, the striking
workers said, bullets. More than 100 striking workers were also arrested.
Several vehicles, motorbikes, and bicycles, as well as foodstuffs and
personal belongings of protesters were either destroyed or confiscated by
the soldiers and police minutes after the shooting.
The massacre has been
attributed to directives by Labor Secretary Patricia Sto. Tomas for the
police and military to enforce her “return to work” order, hence, to break
the picketline.
Beltran, a key
witness in the Senate and House investigations on the Nov. 16 carnage, was
scheduled to appear in the final hearings in Metro Manila on Dec. 13 and
14 to testify on the ballistics aspects of the case: guns and bullets
used, bullet trajectories, and the like.
As chair of the provincial chapter of the Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas
(KMP or Peasant Movement in the Philippines) and vice chair of AnakPawis
(toiling masses) in Tarlac, he was active at the picket line in the
hacienda from Day 1 of the strike. He also looked after the welfare of the
union members and their families and, more so, in the investigation to
prosecute the perpetrators of the massacre.
A tenant farmer in his barangay, some 30 kms west of the hacienda, Beltran
was deeply involved in a land dispute with the landlord at the time of his
death. Friends say that the bitter land dispute is enough reason for his
murder. But all agree that the immediate cause of his death is his support
for the plantation and sugar mill workers in Hacienda Luisita. Bulatlat
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