Dear friends and comrades,

It is with deep and most profound sorrow and anger that I would like to
personally inform you that a few hours ago tonight (24 April 2006) one of
the most important national leaders of UNORKA, Enrico “Eric” Cabanit was
gunned down by two masked assassins in Panabo, Davao del Norte (in the
southern Philippines). Comrade Eric is the general Secretary of UNORKA —
today’s largest national movement of landless poor peasants struggling for
land reform in the Philippines. Eric’s daughter, Daffodil, who is also an
activist-organizer of UNORKA in the adjacent province of Cotabato was also
wounded in the chest and is currently in very critical condition.

The assassination of comrade Eric came in the midst of heightening
conflict over the issue of land reform in the (cavendish) banana
plantations controlled by the family of Antonio Floirendo — a well-known
despotic, former Marcos crony, a very large landed elite and conduit of
global fruit giants, e.g. Del Monte. Eric and his daughter were in the
Panabo (his hometown) municipal market when they were gunned down — they
just came from a dialogue with the Department of Agrarian Reform over the
question of land reform in these plantations.

The assassination of comrade Eric is not an isolated case. A week ago, an
UNORKA leader was gunned down by masked assassins in Negros Oriental; a
few days ago, another peasant leader of the peasant group PKMM who was
also active in a large contested landholding claimed by indigenous
peasants (affiliated with UNORKA) was gunned down in Kabankalan, Negros
Occidental. A week ago, a peasant leader of a different peasant
organization (TFM) was also gunned down in another town in Negros
Occidental.

This assassinations were all directly linked to the peasants struggles for
land. But these four recent assassinations — especially of UNORKA’s top
leader — strongly and clearly suggest a pattern of a systematic effort to
kill militant peasant leaders for the purpose of sowing terror among
peasants in order to frustrate the advance of meaningful land reform. They
will fail.

This assassination also came less than two months of the National Congress
of UNORKA to be held in Panabo in June 2006 — the very town where Eric
was gunned down. The Congress is to be attended by a few hundred peasant
leaders nationwide and by a delegation from La Via Campesina.

I am currently in the Philippines, and I write this flash report in order
to send it quickly to some friends in the country and internationally. I
believe UNORKA and its ally organizations (PEACE, PARRDS, FIAN, AJF, Laban
ng Masa) will produce a better written case update by tomorrow. Meanwhile,
please do circulate this flash report.

revolting in anger,

Jun

Dr. Saturnino (Jun) M. Borras Jr.
Rural Development, Environment and Population Studies
Institute of Social Studies (ISS)
Kortenaerkade 12, 2518AX The Hague, Netherlands
+ 31 70 - 4260 694; www.iss.nl/land/ <http://www.iss.nl/land/>