The militant Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP) together with its provincial chapter the Katipunan ng mga Samahang Magbubukid sa Rizal (KASAMA-Rizal) and the Samahang Magsasaka ng Sityo Seedling(SAMASEED), Calumpit-Seedling, Macabud, Rodriguez, Rizal trooped to the Ombudsman’s office to file a case against the Manila Water Works and Sewerage System (MWSS), for illegally demolishing more than 200 houses in the area, in connivance with, the  Municipal government  Rodriguez, Rizal. Star Agency Security Service,Philippine National Police, Office of the Government Corporate Council, Manila Water Company, Inc. Department of National Defense thru the 51st Engineering Brigade, PA, at Bantay Kalikasan Foundation, Inc.

  “They are pulling a fast one over the Presidential Commision for the Urban Poor, Commission on Human Rights, Department of Education, Culture and Sports, Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council, because they did not perform the agreed upon joint survey of the whole area with the people’s organization. The MWSS did not do this to the detriment of the farmers in the area,” said Ka Willy Marbella, spokesperson of KMP.

  “They did not only violated the inter-agency memorandum of agreement last 2001, but gravely violated the human rights of the peasants of Brgy. Macabud, Rodriguez, Rizal. Up till now harassments are committed by the police and the security guards against the families in the area,” added the peasant leader.

As for his part Nestor San Jose, spokesperson of KASAMA-Rizal, “the Lopezes are professing that they are for the environment, but what they are doing is detrimental to the lives of us peasants, who are the natural caretakers of the land. We are being evicted from our land because they want to make it into a park,”

“A park that will only benefit a few because it would create a lot of profit for their family, but not the majority. We do not degrade the environment on the contrary it is their project that may cause its further deteioration,” ended San Jose. # # #

KMP - 19 January 2005