The militant Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP) condemned the military’s and the Manila South-Coast Development Corporation’s  (MSDC) reign of terror in another hacienda in our archipelago. 

According to Ka Willy Marbella, spokesperson of the group, “the military presence in Hacienda Looc, Nasugbu, Batangas has been increasing since the MSDC through the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) started to bulldoze the lands of the framers in the area. It peaked on the night of January 21, when truckloads of military forces from the 730th Combat Group of the Philippine Air Force (PAF), the 401st Moble group of the Philippine National Police and the Sentinel Security group of the MSDC came in,”

“Perhaps the government and the developers want a repeat of the Hacienda Luisita massacre in Hacienda Looc that’s why they are deploying troops to score another mass murder of poor peasants. Now the MSDC, the LRTK Construction and the 310 Construction are using dynamites to level the land, this caused the injury of a number of peasants yesterday including Osmundo Bautista, a local peasant leader of our chapter the UMALPAS-KA or the Uganayan ng Mamamayan Laban sa Pangwawasak ng Kalupaan sa Hacienda Looc,” added the peasant leader.

“What the MSDC, DPWH, 310 Construction, LRTK Construction, the 730th Combat Group of the PAF and the PNP are doing is highly illegal and unlawful. Given that the case between the Hacienda Looc farmers and the developer is still pending in the Supreme Court. In fact according to our lawyer, it is matter of procedure that no party can take any action that will violate the status quo while the matter is in the hands of the judiciary,” expounded Marbella.

“This really exposes the fact that the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) is a bogus land reform program that does not  distribute land to the farmers but it is also used to evict them from their lands. Only paid hacks of the regime would say that the CARP is pro-peasant,” ended Marbella.

The 8,650 hectare Hacienda Looc was placed under the CARP and the Certicate of Land Ownership Award (CLOA) has already been distributed to the farmers but this was reversed when the MSDC came in and proposed that it would built an eco-tourism haven called Harbor Town, at least 7 peasants have already been murdered by the military and the security guards because of the dispute. # # #

KMP - 23 January 2005