AGRARIAN REFORM AND HUMAN RIGHTS MONITOR

Special Edition 2006

Quezon: The Montimor Case

A pregnant Mercy and her two children, ages two
and four, were jailed for 25 days, together with husband
Rolito Montimor, chairperson of the Samahan
ng mga Petitioner sa Sityo Pader, Quezon province.
(See picture on the right). Rolito and other members
of the peasant association were charged with the
“heinous” crime of stealing coconuts. For the past
two years they have been boycotting the payment
of landlord Domingo Reyes’s “share” since they
discovered that he has no title to the land that he
claims. After his arrest on November 9, 2005,
Rolito’s family had to sell his carabao to pay for his
bail. His fellow farmers also chipped in and a local
representative gave an unspecified amount. It took
25 days to gather the P30,000 bail.

PARRDS and QUARDDS (Quezon Association for Rural Development and Democratization Services) were also able to document 60 cases of frustrated murder involving agrarian reform petitioners in a single municipality in Quezon.

Iloilo: The Baria Case

When forty-eight year old Hernando Baria died on June
23, 2005, he was one of 12 farmers who had recently
received their certificate of land ownership. But
Hernando did not live to enjoy the fruits of their hard
and long struggle.

Twenty armed men who identified themselves as police
shot Hernando without any warning. He died before
he could be brought to the hospital because of severe
blood loss. His wife Jovita and their three children survived
the incident. Jovita believes Vice-Mayor and former
landlord Susan Tad-y-Bedro is behind the incident.