The Partnership for Agrarian Reform and Rural Development Services, Inc. (PARRDS) strongly condemns the inhuman acts –- the killing of farmer and Task Force Mapalad (TFM) member Pepito Santillan and the violence that erupted in La Castellana, Negros Occidental, causing serious injuries to other poor farmers pursuing agrarian reform.

Allegedly, Santillan, 60, was killed when armed men shot at farmers’ home in Hacienda Velez-Malaga at around 2:00 early in the morning (PDI, A13, Friday, Jan. 26, 2007 issue) of Thursday, January 25, 2007.

He was among the farmer-beneficiaries, holders of Certificates of Land Ownership Award (CLOA) who have asserted their right and occupy the 144 ha of landholdings that were awarded to them in 2002 through the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) by the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR). The said property is part of the 446-ha sugar estate owned by the influential Cuenca family that was subjected to CARP coverage.

Despite the Supreme Court’s decision in 2004 upholding the DAR’s ruling, the Cuenca’s continued to resist unyieldingly the implementation of CARP and the inclusion of their sugar estate leading to the clash with the farmers.

The senseless violence could have been avoided. Had the government through DAR and other concerned agencies have adopted a ‘no-nonsense’ policy in addressing indigence in the rural communities. This would mean seriously implementing CARP by covering all estates that falls under the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Law (CARL) without distinction to alleviate poverty .

The government’s utter neglect of the issues of the poor is an affront to human dignity and a violation to internationally guaranteed human rights. Such, we vehemently denounce. It is a shame indeed, for a country as ours have signed and ratified almost all human rights treaties, yet, it failed to secure the means of subsistence of its people, particularly, the marginalized farmers.

We strongly urge the authorities concern to render justice to the victims and their families by bringing to court the alleged perpetrators of the crime and immediately installing the TFM farmers to the property awarded to them.

We are one with the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) in demanding from the government a “greater and more effective performance of their duties as guardians and protectors of our peace” (The Dignity of the Rural Poor—A Gospel Concern; CBCP Pastoral Statement, 28 January 2007).