[asia-apec 495] FVR leaves Filipino peasants with farewell curse (fwd)

[PAN Asia Pacific]

FORWARDED MAIL -------
From: kmp at info.com.ph
Date: 24 Jun 98

Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (Peasant Movement of the
Philippines) 69 Maayusin St., UP Village,=20
Quezon City, Philippines
e-mail address:kmp at info.com.ph


News release
23 June 1998
For immediate release


Dispute with Rene de Villa, Fil-Estate behind attack on peasants?

        PERSECUTION VS. PEASANTS RAISES=20
        SUSPICION OF FVR-FIL ESTATE SWEETHEART DEAL


BATANGAS CITY - - Hundreds of peasants and sympathizers from all over
Batangas picketed the provincial jail in Barangay Alangilan yesterday to
press for the immediate release their leaders arrested on trumped up charges
of illegal possession of firearms.=20

Members of the Samahan ng mga Magbubukid ng Batangas (SAMBAT) demanded the
release of Crisostomo Baes, the group=92s vice-chairman, and his brother
Francisco,  chairman of the Samahan ng Magbubukid sa Barangay Kipot, San
Juan Batangas. =20

Atty. Romeo Capulong of the Public Interest Law Center said a composite of
police squads from Padre Garcia, Taysan, San Juan, Rosario (municipalities
of Batangas province), Batangas City and the provincial PNP, led by San Juan
police chief Fausto Manzanilla and backed up by 80 elements of the Regional
Special Action Force (RSAF), rummaged through six houses during a dawn raid
on 19 June and faked a yield of firearms from the house of the Baes=
 brothers. =20

Occupants of the other houses stood by helplessly outside their houses as
the raiding team aimed rifles at them and looted their houses. The
handcuffed brothers, aged 40 and 50, were made to stand under the rain and
was taunted by police with orders to run the gauntlet.=20

During detention at the Batangas provincial jail in this city, the pair=92s
custodians banged together their heads together several times. Later, they
were made to hold placards with the words =93Regular NPA members=94 written=
 on
them. =20

The militant Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP), to which SAMBAT is
affliated, strongly denounced that the raid is part of the intensifying
political repression under the US-Ramos regime on its remaining days in
power and proof of  Secretary Ernesto Garilao=92s lapdog devotion to
landlords=92 interests.

KMP chairman Rafael Mariano said that SAMBAT=92s running battle to reclaim
farmlands in San Juan from defeated presidentiable Renato de Villa and the
defeats suffered by Fil-Estate in the hands of peasants in Hacienda Looc are
driving the ruling elites in Batangas into desperate means to reverse their
legal losses. =20

It will be recalled that a week before the May elections, a thousand
Batangue=F1o peasants symbolically padlocked the Manila offices of the
Department of Agrarian Reform to dramatize their anger over the agency=92s
massive cancellation of land ownership awards in Hacienda Looc, Hacienda
Roxas, Patugo, Lian, Rosario and San Juan, to name a few centers of agrarian
disputes.=20

The arrests were timed with a public consultation hastily convened by the
Environmental Management Bureau and the Department of Environment and
Natural Resources on the same day. With the opposition engrossed in getting
its leaders out of jail, the DENR is now laying the grounds for its turn to
reverse the eventual suspension of the environmental compliance certificate
issued to Fil-Estate and Manila Southcoast Development Corp. (MSDC).=20

KMP also noted that the arrests and public hearing were timed four days
after Garilao issued a midnight order denying the Hacienda Looc peasants=92
three-month-old appeal contesting DAR=92s approval of MSDC/Fil-Estate=92s=
 claim
over Hacienda Looc. =93This is obviously Ramos=92 sweetheart deal with his=
 golf
buddies in Fil-Estate and MSDC.=94

The group said recent development are proving that peasants have to depend
more on their militant and broader campaigns into the new administration of
president Joseph Estrada to oppose the government=92s inutile CARP and
landgrabbing sprees of big comprador landlords.=20

                - 30 -