Suspects in Ecija, Isabela farmers’ slay named

ONE OF THEIR OWN Farmers in Hacienda Luisita in Tarlac City welcome Agrarian Reform Secretary Rafael Mariano, a former leader of a national farmers’ group, during a dialogue with land reform beneficiaries in the sugar estate formerly owned by the Cojuangco family.
NIÑO JESUS ORBETA

TARLAC CITY—Agrarian Reform Secretary Rafael Mariano on Saturday said fact-finding teams have made progress in establishing who ordered last month’s murder of five farmers in Nueva Ecija and Isabela provinces, including an affiliate member of the farmers’ group he used to head.

Mariano was here for an ocular inspection of Hacienda Luisita and a dialog with farm workers and land reform beneficiaries at the sugar estate.

On Sunday in Nueva Ecija, the provincial police announced they have a “person of interest” in connection with the Sept. 3 attack that killed Emerencia dela Rosa, Violeta Mercado, Eligio Barbado and Gaudencio Bagalay in Laur town in Nueva Ecija.

Senior Supt. Manuel Cornel, Nueva Ecija police director, said a special task force was looking for a man identified only as “Rigor.”

When asked, Cornel confirmed the task force was following up leads provided by human rights group, Karapatan, which also conducted an independent investigation of the attack in Barangay San Isidro in Laur.

In a statement, Karapatan said the attackers were known to farmers belonging to the Alyansa ng mga Magsasakang Nagkakaisa 3100 (Almana 3100), which had petitioned for a share of the 3,100-hectare agrarian reform land that occupies portions of Laur and Palayan City.

The gunmen had opened fire on farmers who were resting after putting up huts on the land that had been segregated from the Fort Magsaysay military reservation.

“The police are conducting their investigation but our teams are closely coordinating with them,” Mariano said here on Saturday.

He said legal teams from the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) would also hold their own investigation of the killing of four farmers in Laur as well as that of farmer Ariel Diaz in Delfin Albano town in Isabela on Sept. 7.

Diaz was gunned down at his farm in Villa Pereda in Delfin Albano. Diaz led the Danggayan Dagiti Manalon, an affiliate of the Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas, which Mariano used to head before President Duterte appointed him to the DAR.

“If authorities are able to determine that the killing of the farmers was agrarian reform-related, it would be up to the police and the victims’ families whether they would file criminal cases,” Mariano said, adding that the DAR would help them every step of the way.

Dialogue

During his dialogue with Luisita farmers, Mariano said he was reviewing his predecessor’s decision to disqualify 111 farm worker-beneficiaries (FWBs) for refusing to sign a document called the application to purchase and farmers’ undertaking (Apfu). This seals the transaction between the government and the land reform beneficiary who is tasked to ensure the productivity of the land covered by a certificate of land ownership award.

The document states that a signatory accepts the arrangement that his rights to the agrarian land may be forfeited should the land be neglected and misused.

“DAR is finding out why these 111 FWBs did not sign the Apfu. But refusing to sign that document should not be a ground to disqualify an individual as a beneficiary of land reform,” Mariano told the Luisita workers.

He said he would review how agrarian reform was enforced on the vast sugar plantation formerly owned by relatives of former President Benigno Aquino III.

“We begin genuine agrarian reform at the belly of the beast—in Hacienda Luisita, where farmer-tenants have struggled to take the land due them,” he said.