This story
was taken from Bulatlat, the Philippines's alternative weekly
newsmagazine (www.bulatlat.com, www.bulatlat.net, www.bulatlat.org).
Vol. V, No. 5, March 6-12, 2005
‘Nardong Putik’
Pushes Eviction of Cavite Farmers
Theirs is a struggle for land
whose ending is uncertain, but through their collective action they hope to get
justice in the end. The peasants’ enemy is their landlord who happens to be a
former movie actor who portrayed the “good guy” in several films, protecting the
oppressed and exploited. In this real-life drama, however, the “good guy” has
the police and military backing him up to get what he wants. Unless the land dispute
over Cabangaan, a 25-hectare land owned by former senator and Public Estates
Authority (PEA) chair Ramon Revilla Sr., is resolved, what is now a tense
atmosphere could turn bloody. Known in moviedom as
“Nardong Putik,” Revilla is now a retired senator.
Saturation drives At early dawn last Feb. 5,
around 300 heavily-armed members of the Philippine National Police (PNP)-Silang,
together with the Regional Mobile Group, Regional Investigation Unit, Cavite
Criminal Investigation and Detection Team and the military, Teodoro Garcia, Samaca
Chair and vice president of Kalipunan ng mga Magsasaka sa Kabite (Kamagsasaka-Ka,
or Peasant Alliance in Cavite), said he has sought the help of Cavite Gov.
Erineo Maliksi, but to no avail. "As our elders said, here
in this land we were born; here, too we shall die. To die fighting for this land
is sweet," he said. Bulatlat © 2004 Bulatlat
■
Alipato Publications Permission is granted to reprint or redistribute this article, provided its author/s and Bulatlat are properly credited and notified.
BY DENNIS ESPADA
Bulatlat
SILANG, Cavite – What was once a quiet village here has become the center of
tension as a powerful actor-turned-politician tries to press residents into
leaving their homes.
raided 42 houses in the area. The raid was led by Police Supt. Nestor Mendoza
and a certain Colonel Soriano. The residents were then subjected to zoning or
saturation drives.
Witnesses said the raiders were in full battle gear and wore fatigue uniform but
their nameplates were concealed.
Diane Mariano, deputy secretary-general of the human rights watch group Cavite
Ecumenical Movement for Justice and Peace (CEMJP), told Bulatlat that the
raiding team tried to intimidate the peasants so they could drive them away from
the land.
Mariano also accused the raiding team of "illegal search and seizure as well as
destruction and divestment of private properties" during the incident.
Nine days later, Ricardo Crusido who identified himself as a deputized sheriff
warned residents that he will implement a writ of demolition any time soon.
Residents then began to pile logs and banana trunks as roadblocks to prevent
bulldozers and trucks from entering their area. They also held vigils to protect
the community from any untoward incidents.
On Feb. 14, the Department of Agrarian Reform Adjudication Board (DARAB) issued
a temporary restraining order (TRO) that prohibits the implementation of the
writ of demolition within 20 days.
Long battle for land
Caridad Mercado, 76, the oldest tenant in the village, said their ancestors
first moved to Cabangaan shortly after the Taal Volcano's eruption in 1911. Back
then, the 25-hectare land was densely forested.
Through the years, tillers had converted the land into a productive field of
rice, coconut and vegetables.
In 1972, the property was acquired by Revilla from Emiliano Asuncion, a brother
of the town's former mayor. Part of the deal was the retention of the 70-30
sharecropping agreement with the tenant farmers.
By the end of the decade, coconut and palay were replaced by coffee trees that
became the major agricultural crop based on a tax declaration under Revilla's
name. In 1991, he imposed the fixed-rental scheme where tenants would pay him
P1,500 ($27.28, based on an exchange rate of P54.99 per US dollar) per hectare
every year. By 1995, however, Revilla reportedly told farmers to stop paying
rent.
"Hindi ko kailangan ang pera n'yo dahil marami na ako nito” (I don't need
your money because I already have plenty of it), 59-year-old tenant farmer Edong
Mercado quoted Revilla as saying.
Despite this, Mercado still recognized their obligation to pay their debts and
rentals for their stay in the land.
Mercado recalled: "Hinatid pa namin sa mismong bahay niya (Revilla) sa Imus
ang dalawampung sako ng kapeng tuyo bilang interes at bayad sa aming utang, pero
tinanggihan niya ito” (We even brought to his house 20 sacks of dried coffee
as interest and principal payment but he refused to accept it).
On May 10 last year, Revilla met with at least 20 tenant farmers in a mansion
inside his 8-hectare ranch. Mercado said the former senator forced them to sign
a waiver in which they will unconditionally vacate the land within six months or
when it is needed by the landlord.
The farmers protested and this proved to be the start of the ongoing legal
battle.
Support from other sectors
The Cabangaan peasants' struggle for land, meanwhile, has found allies among
Catholic religious congregations of neighboring Tagaytay City and other sectors
in the community.
The Samahan ng Magsasaka sa Cabangaan (Samaca or Peasant Association in
Cabangaan) has also demanded that the farmers be recognized as legitimate land
tenants; for farmers to pay the rentals based on a leasehold agreement and for
them to continuously till the land.
"He refused to help us, saying we would lose our fight because Revilla is his
kumpare” (godfather of one’s child in baptism, confirmation or marriage),
Garcia recalled, as he showed to this writer what was left of their pineapple
crops which were crushed and uprooted by soldiers and policemen.
The tenant farmers and their families are now pinning their hopes on their
collective unity. "The Department of Agrarian Reform should stop conniving with
the police and military to criminalize the peasants who are struggling for their
legitimate rights," Garcia said. “For a very long time, we found no reason to
trust the government's agrarian reform program," Garcia said.