A youth agrarian reform advocate group, NNARA-Youth, expressed vehement condemnation of DAR Secretary Bernie Cruz’s statement which claimed that the collective land cultivation campaign or bungkalan of the arrested individuals was a mere “leftist insinuation.”
According to Cruz, “leftist organizations” were taking advantage of the mass arrest to “forward their personal interests.”
In response, NNARA-Youth’s John Mark De Mesa, who was also among the arrested peasant advocates, lambasted Cruz’s claims as “irresponsible and baseless.”
De Mesa lambasts Cruz for holding a press conference just to smear the unlawful mass arrest as an alleged “political agenda” of “leftist groups.” He furthers that DAR’s non-response and insinuations expose Cruz as ignorant of the department’s mandate in land distribution.
Last June 9, Thursday, 92 farmers, who are mostly members of MAKISAMA-Tinang, and land reform advocates were arrested in the middle of their “bungkalan” activity in Brgy. Tinang, Concepcion, Tarlac. Prior to their arrest, police forces have continued to harass them.
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The arrested farmers are among the 236 agrarian reform beneficiaries (ARB) of the Hacienda Tinang land distribution worth 200 hectares of cultivable land, which in itself was a long process delayed for 27 years. The farmers have previously been granted their Certificates of Land Ownership Awards (CLOA) in 2016 over hectares of land which they would rightfully own once the CLOAs are implemented. However, they are barred by the local Villanueva clan who also claims ownership to the 200-hectare plantation.
Tinang 92 also included about 30 students from different universities, including three from UP Diliman College of Social Sciences and Philosophy (CSSP).
The individuals were charged with malicious mischief and illegal assembly with bail worth P39,000 each, for a total of P3.2 million, to gain temporary freedom. Nine individuals were released on the evening of June 10 while the rest were freed on June 12.
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Due to public clamor and demand, the bail was lowered by Prosecutor Mila Mae G. Montefalco-Ikehista to P13,500 each plus a processing fee of P1,000 each, totaling P1.2 million.
After spending three days in detention, a Capas court issued a release order for the remaining 83 detainees. They were finally freed on June 12 although the police initially rejected the order.
Concepcion Police OIC P/Lt. Col. Reynaldo Macabitas of the Concepcion Police Station hampered the release of Tinang 83, claiming that the judge’s decision was wrong. This is after Atty. Jobert Pahilga had already certified the release order for the detained individuals.
During their detention, members of the Tinang 92 shared narratives of human rights violations such as confiscation of their phones, packing of 50 individuals to a 2 by 4 meter cell, interrogation, and deprivation of water.
According to Atty. Pahilga of the National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers (NUPL), the 83 individuals plan to sue the prosecutors due to misconduct involving their detention and delayed release.
Earlier on June 7, last Tuesday, the farmers went to DAR to reiterate their lawful claim to their lands, calling on DAR to reevaluate the beneficiaries of the appeal of the Tinang Multi-Purpose Cooperative that they contended should also include them.
However, the police alleged that the MAKISAMA Tinang farmers demolished the sugarcane plantation owned by the Tinang Multi-Purpose Cooperative, which filed the cases against the 92 individuals.
The Tinang Multi-Purpose Cooperative is directly connected to Tarlac 3rd district Rep and Concepcion, Tarlac mayor-elect Noel Villanueva, having relatives as members of the cooperative.
As pointed out by NNARA-Youth, “instead of supporting the legitimate CLOA holding farmers, [DAR Sec.] Cruz chose to discredit their campaign and sided with the cooperative connected to the powerful political family of then Congressman and now incoming Mayor Noel Villanueva.”
During his press conference today, Sec. Cruz unfoundedly claimed that the “bungkalan” in Tinang was just “a political agenda backed by leftist groups.”
NNARA-Youth further contended, “the failure of DAR to install farmers on their land is the reason why farmers launched the land cultivation campaign, not some leftist groups with political agenda.”
Up to the present, seven out of 10 farmers remain landless while landlords continue to encroach upon cultivable lands for infrastructure, monocropping, and corporate interests. Meanwhile, hundreds of peasants have been subject to harassment and intimidation by private goons and state forces, backed by landlords and political clans. At least 330 farmers were also killed under the Duterte regime.
Land reform advocates continue to call for genuine agrarian reform, national industrialization, and justice for those unjustly detained and killed.
#LandToTheTillers
#StopTheAttacks
