Urgent Alert
February 13, 2026
The International Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines (ICHRP) expresses utmost condemnation on the arrest of 21 peasants and residents of Sitio Veinte-Veinte Cuatro, Barangay Casile, Cabuyao in the Southern Tagalog province of Laguna.
At 11 PM on February 7, guards of the Laguna Estates Development Corporation (LEDC) and armed goons of Emirate Security Services violently dispersed the peaceful encampment of peasants in Casile. The guards reportedly fired guns repeatedly to intimidate the residents.
Afterwards, 21 peasants and residents were arrested and brought to the Cabuyao Police Station by the Philippine National Police (PNP) on trumped-up charges of “squatting” and trespassing. ICHRP condemns the complicity of the PNP, LEDC, and the Emirates Security Services in the violent arrest of the residents. We also denounce the inaction of Cabuyao Mayor Dennis Hain on the incident.
Among the arrested were five senior citizens, three women, one individual suffering from diabetes, and one individual with a mental health problem. They were released and their charges were dismissed after almost 48 hours in detention.
The LEDC is owned by the influential Yulo landlord clan. It plans to construct an extension of the Cavite-Laguna Expressway (CALAX), condominiums, and subdivisions (gated villages) on peasant lands in the localities of Laguna. The incident on February 7 follows the illegal fencing of the Yulo-owned Sta. Rosa Realty Development Corporation (SRRDC) on 24 hectares of peasant lands in Casile in 2024, which reintensified the conflict between residents and the Yulos.
Barangay Casile is part of the 7,100-hectare Hacienda Yulo. Since 2020, peasants and residents in the area have been receiving eviction threats. A sitio inside the hacienda was reportedly burned down by armed goons in 2021.
The Yulos’ intrusion into peasant lands goes way back in the 1970s when they built a summer house in Casile and oversaw successive demolitions. This was the beginning of their decades-long systematic landgrabbing through companies LEDC and SRRDC.
The systematic and ceaseless attacks against peasant communities and continued landgrabbing of peasant lands in the country are symptomatic of the utter failure of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) of the Philippine government in distributing lands to farmers. It exposes a government run by political dynasties, landlords, and bureaucrats that strongly favor corporate interest and sham “development” over the welfare of millions of toiling, neglected, and landless peasants.
ICHRP supports the call for genuine land reform, strong state support for farmers and the agriculture sector, and calls for an end to attacks against peasant communities in the country.
