Madam President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo:

From 2001 when you assumed power to 2006,
38 farmer-leaders were slain in cold blood.
Two more were killed since — TFM’s Pepito
Santillan in Negros Occidental on January 25
and UNORKA’s Joseph Matunding in Iloilo on
January 30. KMBP’s Heliolito Abrenica could
have been the third had he not survived the
bolo-hacking by a goon identified with a big
landowner in San Francisco, Quezon. He,
however, lost his left hand.

More limbs and lives are likely to be sacrificed
unless you act quickly and resolutely. Records
of PARRDS indicate that there are 2,342
leaders and organizers whose lives are
threatened by goons and security guards of big
landowners and plantations as well as others in
their service, including policemen, barangay
tanods, and members of so-called
revolutionary forces.

The farmers have experienced five years of
murders, frustrated murders, arson, physical
assaults, grave threats, forced evacuations,
harassment cases, destruction of properties,
and strafing of houses, especially in agrarian
reform hotspots like Negros Occidental,
Negros Oriental, Iloilo, Davao del Norte,
Compostela Valley, Sarangani, Mindoro
Occidental, Batangas, Quezon, and Masbate.

No less than the Catholic Bishops’ Conference
of the Philippines (CBCP) has attributed the
killings and violence to
your government’s
apparent disregard for
meaningful
implementation of
agrarian reform.

Apparently in response,
you were quoted on
February 6 by a national
newspaper as saying:

“There is a new paradigm that is being
proposed to open new lands for agriculture
so that we can give farmers a chance to have
their own land and, yet, avoid all this
bloodshed that is happening (in the
implementation of land reform).”

Is this “new paradigm” going to be still another
attempt to avoid implementing agrarian reform
law due to landowner pressure?

The Melo Commission you set up to probe the
extra-judicial killings, including those
involving peasants as victims, submitted a
report to you in December 2006. Why has it
not been made public?

As a community of civil society organizations
and human rights advocates concerned with the
plight of farmers struggling for agrarian
reform, we appeal to you, Madam President, to
please:

1. Make public the report of the Melo
Commission, especially the results of its
investigation of agrarian reform-related
killings and violence;

3. Implement agrarian reform speedily and
fairly especially in contentious landholdings,
taking into consideration the rights of the
legitimate farmers.

Signed:

Most. Rev. Antonio J. Ledesma, SJ, Archbishop of Cagayan de Oro - Fr. Robert Reyes
Sr. Maluz Mijares, OSA and Br. Edmundo Fernandez, FSC, Co-Chairpersons, AMRSP - Sr. Arnold Ma. Noel, Sulong CARHRIHL
Fr. Archie Casey SX, Xaverian Missionaries - Sr Crescencia L. Lucero SFIC, TFD

Sen. Wigberto Tanada, PRRM - Gerardo Bulatao - Christian S. Monsod - Oscar D. Francisco - Ricardo Reyes - Clifford Burkley
Conrado S. Navarro, AJF - Ria Miclat-Teves, PDI - Rep. Loretta Ann P. Rosales, Akbayan -
Rep. Risa Hontiveros-Baraquel, Akbayan - Edicio G. Dela Torre - Karen N. Tanada, GZO Peace Institute - Max de Mesa, PAHRA

Apolonio Pacardo, UNORKA-Pilipinas - Armando Jarilla, Task Force Mapalad - Loreto Caman, PASAMAKA - Edgardo Lopez, KMBP
Liwayway Caparas, UNORKA-Southern Tagalog - UNORKA-Mindanao - Diosdado B. Calmada, PEACE Foundation, Inc.
Belinda Formanes, PARRDS - Danilo Bernal, QUARDDS - Mark Amor, MFDC - Hon. Arnold Betita, PROGRESO
Nestor Eugenio, PKSK - Ernie Lim, AR Now! - Jane Capacio, KAISAHAN - Rene Cerilla, PAKISAMA
Ian Rivera Jr, Kalayaan - Linn Ramos, CARET - Carmen Flores-Obanil, CSI - Pat Gonzales, MODE, Roy Ribo, ARC

Atty. Barry Gutierrez, UP-IHR - Joel Rocamora - Gil Navarro, PATH - Auxilium Toling-Olayer - Loreine dela Cruz, FIND - Balay -
Edeliza P. Hernandez, MAG - Atty. Jae dela Cruz - Prof. Tita Mallari - Kubol ng Pag-asa - Ma. Lourdes Magtibay, Pandayan

Asian Human Rights Commission (Hongkong) - Dr. Saturnino M. Borras Jr., Saint Mary’s University (Halifax, Canada)
Walden Bello, Focus on the Global South - Evert de Boer, Philippine Solidarity Group Netherlands (FGN)
Sari Peltonen, Finnish-Philippine Society, Finland - Brid Brennan, Transnational Institute (Netherlands) - Nonoi Hacbang, CFMW
Dr. Jennifer C. Franco, TNI (Amsterdam) - Philipp Bueck, Philippinenbuero im Asienhaus
Andreas Herrmann and Sarah Potthoff, International Peace Observers Network (Germany) - Roger Daenekindt, Bond Belgium

Victims

– Pepito Santillan,
60, is the first
killed this year (Jan
25, Negros
Occidental)

– Joseph Matunding,
43, is the latest
killed (Jan. 30 in
Iloilo)

– Eric Cabanit, 53,
was slain in April
last year in Davao
del Norte

– Vicente Tejino, 44,
was slain in
February 2003 in
Quezon

– Rico Adeva, 39,
was gunned to
death last April
2006 in Negros
Occidental