[asia-apec 990] Newsflash from KMP (Peasant Movement of the Philippines)

[tpl at cheerful.com]

NEWSFLASH: December 31, 1998

	FRAMED-UP PEASANT DETAINEES RELEASED, DEMAND LAND REFORM

SAN Jose del Monte, Bulacan, Philippines -- The police released from
detention last night Melencio Cañete, chair of the Sandigang Samahan ng
Magsasaka sa Tungkong Mangga (Sasamag), and his deputy, Wilfredo Inocillas.
They were arrested on December 22 after having been implicated in the
killing of a security guard employed by the Araneta clan to which a
son-in-law of the late dictator Marcos belongs.

Judge Aznar Lindayag, who signed the faulty arrest warrant, hastily ordered
the release of the two to forestall a planned march-rally by 300 angry
peasants which would have been politically embarassing to the local
government and the Estrada administration as the year ends. 

The peasant mass action was called off as villagers prepared for the new
year's humble 'feast' of corn grits and boiled beans, a picture that belied
Estrada's much touted promise of food sufficiency.

Cañete and Inocillas said their release was the result of local mass
actions by the Tungkung Mangga peasants, a part of the nationwide peasant
struggle for genuine land reform and against government repression of
peasant resistance to liberalization and privatization which deprive them
of land and livelihood.    

The two reiterated Sasamag's demands: 

· Implementation of genuine land reform 
. Distribution of the 311-hectare farmland in Tungkong Mangga to Sasamag
members and their families
· Immediate pullout of security guards and mercenaries from Tungkong Mangga
and payment of damages for crops, houses and farm animals which were burnt,
looted, bulldozed, demolished and killed
· Release of all political prisoners, in particular the jailed peasants
from Mamburao, Occidental Mindoro, namely: Manolito Matricio, Ruben
Balaguer, Gelito Bautista, Mario Tobias, Eduardo Hermoso and Josue Ungsod.
They were wrongfully implicated in the killing of Paul and Michael Quintos,
sons of a local warlord/politician.

The DAR national office ruled on September 28 that the 311 hectares in
Tungkung Mangga were covered by the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program
but the decision has not been implemented by DAR under its new head,
Secretary Horacio Morales, thus allowing claimant corporations to saturate
the area with dozens of hostile security guards and mercenaries. Sasamag
expressed no surprise to DAR's non-implimentation of its own ruling since
the Estrada administration has consistently proven itself on the side of
monopoly landowners like the Marcos crony, Danding Cojuangco.

Rafael Mariano, KMP chair, reiterated his organization's call for its
members to fight for genuine land reform and demand a stop to state
repression of popular dissent especially of the peasants and workers. KMP
is also adamant in demanding that the Estrada government comply with the
provisions of the Comprehensive Agreement on Respect for Human Rights and
International Humanitarian Law that it signed with the National Democratic
Front of the Philippines (NDFP) and proceed to the next phase of the peace
talks with the NDFP which will tackle social and economic reforms.#