155 farmers charged for siege at DLR office

On the eve of the 17th anniversary of the government’s Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP), four leaders and 155 farmers from Cavite, Quezon, Bicol, and Mindanao, were charged criminally yesterday for the "siege" at the Department of Land Reform (DLR) central offices the other day.

Vangie Mendoza and Enrico Cabanit, leaders of the Ugnayan ng Nagsasariling Organisasyon sa Kanayunan (UNORKA); Steve Quiambao, president of PEACE Foundation; and one Melanie Salindong were accused of violating the Revised Penal Code on tumults and other disturbances of public order, along with 155 picketing farmers.

Ernesto Regacho, officer-in-charge of the Intelligence and Civil Security Unit of DLR, stood as the complainant in the case filed before the Quezon City Prosecutor’s Office yesterday afternoon.

In response, however, the farmers’ organizations will file a case of arbitrary detention against the Central Police District; and human rights violations before the Commission on Human Rights against the DLR and its officials.

As this developed, Land Reform Secretary Rene Villa condemned the actions of the farmers, who managed to occupy Villa’s office for 12 hours last Thursday.

"There is no way to describe these acts, but as criminal and seditious. They went inside the (DLR) premises purportedly to dialogue with us, but now it appears they had plans beforehand to create trouble, mayhem and damage," Villa said in a statement.

At around 10 a.m. the other day, the farmers were able to sneak their way to to the fourth floor and eventually enter Villa’s office, destroying in the process the glass door at a side entrance of the DLR building.

The farmers stayed inside the building until 10 p.m., or until 300 policemen from the CPD Special Weapons and Tactics team and DLR security guards forced them out to the covered court. 

They were later taken to CPD headquarters at Camp Karingal in Sikatuna Village.

According to Villa, the farmers, "acting like thieves," ransacked drawers and cabinets while inside the executive offices on the fourth floor. 

He said a full audit is now being conducted to account for lost items, but based from the complaints he initially received, cell phones, petty cash and several office supplies were missing.

"We have for a long time tolerated their encampment outside the DLR gates, believing as we do in freedom of expression," Villa said.  "On June 8, we were all ready once more to hear their grievances if indeed there were legitimate ones.  But they occupied the executive offices and arrogantly demanded that we go to them and bring them food and threatened to destroy more property if we do not accede to their acts of hostile occupancy."

However, Eddie Lopez, president of the Kilusang Magbubukid ng Bondoc Peninsula, Quezon, insisted that they went to the DLR peacefully to attend the scheduled dialogue with Villa.

Lopez, who was among the 155 farmers charged, claimed that the glass door was accidentally broken due to the tension between the farmers and DLR security guards.

Farmers from the Bondoc Peninsula have been urging the DLR to rescind the approved conversion and exemption of the estate, saying the lands were already undergoing process for CARP coverage.

Likewise, farmers from Bicol, Cavite, and Mindanao have been demanding coverage of vast estates owned by influential families, and for a genuine implementation of the CARP, including speedy distribution of the lands.

It can be recalled that UNORKA staged a similar "siege" of the building during the term of Jose Mari Ponce.

Ponce filed sedition charges against the peasant group, but withdrew the case two days later.