Dear friends,
The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) is forwarding an appeal from the Partnership for Agrarian Reform and Rural Development Services, Inc. (PARRDS), a coalition of non-governmental organisation advocating for genuine agrarian reform, regarding the desperate plight of hundreds of farmers in Bondoc Peninsula, Quezon.
According to PARRDS’ report, several farmers in San Narciso, San Francisco and San Andres municipalities have already been arrested while hundreds of others are facing the threat of being arrested. The farmers and their families–including children and women–were forced to evacuate their villages for fear of arrests as a result of several cases filed against them by the influential landowners in court.
The conflict began after the farmers, who had been serving as tenants over a long period, filed petitions to have the land they are tilling be covered under the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Programme (Carp). Once the land is covered by Carp, an agrarian reform program by the government, the farmers who are tenants would have the opportunity of ownership of the land. This, however, has since been strongly opposed by their landowners.
It is reported that the legal action taken against the farmers–such as filing of charges in court against them, threats, intimidation and continued harassment is reportedly taken as counter attacks by the landowner to oppose the petition. Amongst those charges filed is theft, which is a result of a farmer taking food crops from the farm where landowners claimed had grown within the disputed property. Some of those charged had been issued with arrest warrants without having opportunity to submit their counter-affidavits to answer the charges due to absence of legal counsel.
The AHRC encouraged you to respond to this appeal by taking action as requested by the concerned organisation, PARRDs. Should you have further question, please contact them via the details below.
Urgent Appeals Programme
Asian Human Rights Commission
—————————————————–
URGENT ACTION REQUEST
PHILIPPINES
ESCALATING HARASSMENT AND CRIMINALIZATION OF AGRARIAN REFORM-RELATED CASES IN BONDOC PENINSULA, QUEZON PROVINCE
Dear Friends,
We regret to inform you of this recent incident that concerns our peasant brothers and sisters struggling for agrarian reform and human rights in Bondoc Peninsula, south of Luzon.
CASE BRIEF:
On 17 July 2006, sixty-eight (68) peasants from Bondoc Peninsula fled their homes and sought refuge at the Department of Agrarian Reform Central Office in Quezon City to seek government protection. The displaced farmers include twenty-seven (27) women and twenty-six (26) children aged five and below. They are tenants of the Matias and Reyes haciendas whose landholdings they petitioned to be covered under the government’s Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) way back in November of 2004.
The farmers’ exodus was spurred by the landlords’ filing of a barrage of criminal charges and the subsequent issuance of arrest warrants against the hapless tenants. This is on top of a continuing harassment and physical violence they encountered from private armed men, even New People’s Army (NPA) allegedly under the payroll of the influential land owners.
Filing of criminal charges (e.g. theft, robbery, trespassing, etc.) is a ploy by landlords to frustrate the CARP petition of the longtime tenants. Such acts are illegal and contradictory to Section 56 of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Law (CARL) which provides; that agrarian reform related cases should be filed and litigated in Special Agrarian Courts within the Regional Trial Courts (RTCs) of every province as duly designated by the Supreme Court, the farmers claimed.
As of late, 206 criminal cases were filed by the influential landlords against the 189 tenants in the three of biggest haciendas in Bondoc Peninsula (Reyes, Matias and Zoleta-Queblar families). This has resulted to a mass surrender’ of around 120 marginalized farmers at the Department of Justice (DOJ) on 29 May 2006.
These recent incidents have displaced the poor farmers and members of their families affecting a wide array of intrinsic and internationally guaranteed civil, political, economic, social and cultural human rights (life, food, shelter, health, education and freedom of movement).
Owing to these miserable circumstances the farmers face, we, from the agrarian reform and human rights communities demand, that they be treated as internally displace persons who should be accorded with all the rights and assistance that are due them, as provided for in the United Nations Guiding Principles on Internal Displacements (UNGPID).
APPEAL FOR SUPPORT:
If the Philippine government would not seriously look into the matter and address this inequity and injustice decisively, violence in the agrarian reform communities would continue unbridled. If the government would not dare decriminalize agrarian reform-related cases, the exodus of internally displaced farmers would continue and many more would be bound to jail.
We remind the Philippine government, as explicitly stated in Resolution 51/2003 of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights (UNCHR) which states that it is the primary responsibility of national authorities to provide protection and assistance to internally displaced persons within their jurisdiction, as well as to address the root causes of their displacement in appropriate cooperation with the international community and also to find durable solutions for all internally displaced persons and to strengthen international cooperation in order to help them return voluntarily to their homes in safety and with dignity or, based on their free choice, to resettle in another part of their country, and to be smoothly reintegrated into their societies.
In this light, we call on the international community to please intervene in behalf of the disadvantaged Bondoc Peninsula farmers and send letters to the government officials through the various agencies they represent by demanding the following concrete actions:
CALL TO ACTION:
Immediate provision of food, water, electricity, medical assistance and protection to the displaced farmers and their families who sought refuge and are currently at the Department of Agrarian Reform Central Office in Quezon City.
Provision of lawyers and Para-legal experts who may be able to defend them in court and work towards the dismissal of their case.
Immediately place Hacienda Matias and other similar land holdings in Bondoc Peninsula, such as those owned by the Uy and Reyes families, under the CARP for land redistribution to farmers and tillers.
Disarm, disband and prosecute all armed goons, private armies, death squads of land owners and bring to justice all perpetrators of agrarian-related human rights violations.
Assist the safe return of affected farmers and their families to their homes in Bondoc Peninsula and ensure their personal security and their human rights, so they are able to continue with work without undue fear or interference from their landlords or their goons.
Reparation for the families affected by the displacement.
Immediate liberty for the twenty one (21) imprisoned farmers in Gumaca district Jail and compensation for the wrongfully accused.
Uphold and seriously implement Agrarian Reform laws in Bondoc Peninsula and the rest of the CARP covered areas.
Enact a new agrarian reform law that would be implemented beyond 2008, which is pro-farmer, pro-social reform and has clear provisions for the actual and immediate redistribution of land to the tillers.
SEND YOUR LETTERS TO:
1. H.E. GLORIA MACAPAGAL-ARROYO
President
Republic of the Philippines
Malacanang Palace
JP Laurel Street, San Miguel, Manila
NCR 1005, Philippines
2. HON. RONALDO V. PUNO
Secretary
Department of Interior and Local Government
A. Francisco Gold Condominium II
EDSA cor. Mapagmahal St., Diliman
Quezon City, Philippines
Voice:+63 (2) 925-0330/31
Mobile:
Fax:+63 (2) 925-0332
rvpuno@dilg.gov.ph
3. HON. AVELINO J, CRUZ, JR.
Secretary
Department of National Defense
Room 301 DND Building, Camp Emilio Aguinaldo,
E. de los Santos Avenue
Quezon City, Philippines
Voice:+63(2) 911-9281 / 911-0488
Fax:+63(2) 911 6213
osnd@philonline.com
sndcruz@dnd.gov.ph
ajcruz@dnd.gov.ph
4. HON. DATU NASSER C. PANGANDAMAN, AL HADJ
Secretary
Department of Agrarian Reform
Eliptical Road, Diliman
Quezon City 1104, Philippines
Fax +63 (2) 929-3088
5. HON. RAUL GONZALEZ
Secretary
Department of Justice
DOJ Building, Padre Faura
1004 Manila, Philippines
Fax: +63(2) 521-1614
Email: sechbp@infocom.com.ph
6. P/DIR. GEN. ARTURO LUMIBAO
Chief, Philippine National Police
Camp General Rafael Crame
Quezon City, Philippines
Fax: +63 2724-8763
7. HON. PURIFICACION QUISUMBING
Commissioner
Philippine Commission on Human Rights
SAAC Bldg., Commonwealth Avenue
U.P. Complex, Diliman
Quezon City, Philippines
Fax: +63 (2) 929-0102
Email: drpvq@chr.gov.ph
Thank you for your solidarity support.
Sincerely,
BELINDA L. FORMANES (SIGNED)
Executive Director
PARRDS
(Partnership for Agrarian Reform and Rural Development Services, Inc.)
———————————————–
Thank you.
Urgent Appeals Programme
Asian Human Rights Commission (ahrchk@ahrchk.org)
To support this case, please click here: SEND APPEAL LETTER
SAMPLE LETTER
