Families of slain Sagay sugarcane workers cry justice

Families, colleagues and friends of the slain sugarcane workers display their rage using banners near the Sagay City Hall to call on the government to deliver justice for the victims. Contributed provincial photo

SAGAY CITY –The families of the nine victims in the massacre on Saturday want impartial justice for their loved ones, according to former Bayan Partylist Rep. Neri Colmenares.

“My problem with the current investigation [is that] there are conclusions that have been made with no clear basis,” said Colmenares, who met with the families on Tuesday morning.

The families are at the Sagay City Hall here where the coffins of the victims have been transferred for the visit of President Rodrigo Duterte on Tuesday.

Outside the city hall, about 150 people were lined up carrying streamers to call for justice for the victims.

The victims were among the 14 persons who occupied a portion of Hacienda Nene in Barangay Bulanon, Sagay in order to cultivate the land and plant food crops so they would have something to eat.

But armed men fired at the victims while they were resting inside a makeshift tent on Saturday night, killing nine persons including two minors.

Colemenares said the victims’ relatives believed that their move to occupy the Hacienda Nene was not illegal because they were the rightful beneficiaries of the land.

“They did not do anything bad. they just planted corn and munggo. But if they were told to leave they would have done so,” he said.

“There was no warning. They were just killed, he added.

Colmenares said the Makabayan bloc had filed a resolution in the House for an impartial investigation.

He said Brig Gen. Eliezer Losanes, former commander of the 303rd Brigade, should be included in the investigation in the wake of his statement on April 2 that tagged communal farms as members of the Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army (CPP-NPA).

“Why is General Losanes not included in the investigation?” he asked. “Not including him in the probe is questionable.”

“They have criminalized dissent…they have practically opened up the farmers to execution when they tagged them as NPA,” he added.

Colmenares, who heads the National Union of People’s Lawyers, said they were willing to help the families of the victims if they asked for their help.

“But now is the time to grieve, it is not the time to talk about that,” he added

The main concern of the families now is their safety, he said. /jpv

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