A Joint Appeal by Mabuhay Farmers’ Association, AMIHAN (National Federation of Peasant Women) and Children’s Rehabilitation Centre

We urgently need your support regarding the continuing militarisation in the southern part of Luzon, Philippines, particularly in Bondoc Peninsula’s San Francisco, Quezon. Many residents especially women and children have been affected by the persisting atrocities of the 74th Infantry Battalion Philippine Army (IBPA) under Major Edmundo Garbino. Since the farmers were asserting their right to own the land they till, they have been subjected to threats and harassment by the military, who virtually functions as the landlord’s private army. Some of the 74th IBPA’s documented cases of abuses include:

• fully armed soldiers just barged in on the classes of schoolchildren, disrupted the classes and interrogated the children about the revolutionary New People’s Army (NPA) with guns pointed directly at the children;

• soldiers stayed within the school premises and harassed young girls. They maliciously squeezed the hands of young girls in the guise of shaking their hands and whistled at them as they passed by;

• soldiers beat up ordinary citizens whom they suspected as NPA sympathisers and searched their houses without any warrants; and

• soldiers merely watched a son of big landlord Matias beat up one of his tenants for no apparent reason.

Documented since 1997, the abuses continue. Stationed inside the Tumbaga Ranch owned by James Murray, the 74th IBPA is believed (by surviving relatives of the victim) responsible for the death of Marcelito Cacal, a farmer-cowboy of the ranch. Last 15 April, Cacal was found dead, shot at close range in the head, bearing signs of torture and buried in a shallow grave.

Two other farmers were summarily executed - Arnel Bañares and Edgar Montemor. Their perpetrators are still unknown. According to forensic expert Dr. Jerome Bailen, Bañares’ throat was slashed nearly severing his head and he was stabbed several times at the back. Montemor’s body reportedly obtained some wounds in the abdominal area and he appeared to have been hog-tied before thrown into the sea. The police immediately buried the body of Montemor without informing his wife of his death.

All of them - Cacal, Bañares, Montemor - were members of the local militant group Mabuhay Farmers’ Association (MFA), which has lately been receiving the ire of the 74th IBPA. Cacal left six children with the eldest only 11 years old and the youngest is just a year old. Montemor left five children with the eldest only 13 years old and the youngest only one year old. Both the widows of Cacal and Montemor are distressed by the violent deaths of their husbands. They are more hard up now since the men were the sole breadwinners. The plight of the children’s education is now in limbo.

Because of these atrocities, the farmers led by the MFA travelled from Quezon to Manila (a 12-hour travel) to urge Defence Secretary Orlando Mercado and President Joseph Estrada to look into the abuses of the 74th Infantry Battalion.

As a response, Secretary Mercado immediately cleared the 74th IBPA of the human rights violations in San Francisco based on trivial investigations and on testimonies of the 74th IBPA, keeping his promised dialogue with the victims and the MFA unfulfilled. The case against the 74th IBPA atrocities is filed with the Commission on Human Rights but no official report has been released, despite repeated follow-ups.

Thus, we call on your support to persuade our government to oust the 74th IBPA in San Francisco, Quezon, and demilitarise the entire Bondoc Peninsula. We also call for an independent body to conduct an impartial investigation of the atrocities of the 74th IBPA. We believe that your pressure will let our government realise how serious the conditions are in the countryside particularly in San Francisco, Quezon.

We would appreciate it very much if you could send the appeals immediately.

Recommended Action

Please send telegrams/ telexes/ faxes/ express mail/ airmail letters to:

• call for immediate removal of the 74th IBPA in San Francisco and demilitarise the entire Bondoc Peninsula;

• call for setting up an independent body to conduct an impartial investigation of the abuses of the 74th IBPA;

• call for immediate nullification of Administrative Order #9 series of 1993 which allows landlords to evade the distribution of their vast lands;

• call for immediate free distribution of land to landless peasants in San Francisco; and

• call for immediate free distribution of land to Blessie Cacal and Amalia Montemor, widows of the "salvaged" or summarily executed farmers.

Address your letters to:

President Joseph Estrada
Republic of the Philippines
Malacanang Palace, Manila, Philippines
Fax: (+632) 832 3793
(via Dept. of Foreign Affairs)
E-mail: erap@erap.com

Secretary Orlando Mercado
Department of National Defence
Camp Emilio Aguinaldo,
Quezon City, Philippines
Fax: (+632) 911 6213

Secretary Horacio Morales
Department of Agrarian Reform
Quezon Memorial Circle
Diliman, Quezon City, Philippines
Fax: (+632) 426 2606

Lt. General Joselin Nazareno
Chief of Staff
Armed Forces of the Philippines GHQ
Camp Emilio Aguinaldo
1110 Quezon City, Philippines
Fax: (+632) 911 7783 or 911 7708

Also send copies to:

Aurora Navarrete-Reciña
Chairperson
Commission on Human Rights
State Accounting and Auditing Centre SAAC Building
UP Complex
Commonwealth Avenue
1100 Quezon City, Philippines
Fax: (+632) 921 0102

And to diplomatic representatives of the Philippines accredited to your country.