The militant Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP) vowed to block the implementation of the Court of Appeals decision promulgated on March 18, 2005,which declared all of Nasugbu, Batangas, as well as Ternate and Maragondon, Cavite as tourist zones and all lands there are not for agriculture the decision was based on Presidential Proclamation No. 1520 by Deposed dictator Ferdinand Marcos.

According to Danilo “Ka Daning” Ramos, secretary general of KMP, “this is a patent landlord move to erase the farmers struggle for land in the area. It is obvious that the landlord class is now using the Court of Appeals as a tool to justify the planned tourist spots to be built in the area, the most contentious of which is the Harbortown project of the Manila Southcoast Development Corporation (MSDC) and Fil-Estate, in Hacienda Looc,”

“ We also have news that Henry Sy of (SM) Shoemart is also interested on the location. There is also a tourist road being built in the area that destroyed a national park in Looc. These projects are geared to evict not just the 10,000 farmers in Hacienda Looc, but almost all the peasants in the said municipalities, this is a complete sell-out of the interest of peasants,” added Ramos.

Meanwhile Ka Willy Marbella, deputy secretary general of the group, said that “we are now studying all possible means to stop the implementation of this decision and we are prepared to take this even to the Supreme Court and the people in the area are also prepared to fight it out till the end,”

“What we fear though is that because of this decision, big corporations might see this as a go signal to do their all-out pillage of the land as well as a license to evict the farmers who have for decades have tilled the soil. If this happens, then what we feared may come true, and that this decision may be the prelude to another Hacienda Luisita-like massacre,” ended the peasant leader.

The petitioner in the C.A. –GR SP No. 72131 is the Roxas & Company,Inc.,  while the respondents are Katipunan ng Magbubukid sa Hacienda Roxas, Damayan ng Manggagawa sa Asyenda Roxas-National Federation of Sugar Workers (DAMBA-NFSW) and the DAR. # # #
 

KMP - 1 June 2005