By Auckland Philippines Solidarity

Two years since the killing of Fr. Fausto ‘Pops’ Tentorio, PIME, Auckland Philippines Solidarity (APS) together with church leaders in New Zealand gathered at St John’s Presbyterian Church to remember the martyrdom and lighted candles for justice for Fr. Pops.

Fr. Pops’ dear friend and fellow PIME missionary Fr. Peter Geremiah noted in a Justice for Pops (JPM) statement, “During the time of Cory Aquino the killers of Fr. Tullio Favali PIME were sentenced to life imprisonment even though their leader, commander Bukay Manero, was the most famous asset of the military during Martial Law who eventually served 23 years in prison… Now under Cory’s son who is president now, is justice possible for Pops and other victims of extra-judicial killings?”

“It is lamentable that top military officers denied any knowledge of the Bagani force during last year’s Congressional hearings into Fr. Pops’ case, despite repeated testimonies of witnesses on the killings and harassment perpetrated by this paramilitary group against the local civilian population over the years,” Cameron Walker, Spokesperson of Auckland Philippines Solidarity (APS) said.

Witnesses in North Cotabato, including a former Bagani force member, have claimed the paramilitary group is responsible for the killing.  Other serious allegations have been made that the Armed Forces have previously worked with the Bagani force.

“As we have seen in other international situations, such as in Colombia and Northern Ireland, state collusion with paramilitary groups has led to serious human rights violations”, noted Walker.

Rev. Prince Devanandan of the NZ Methodist Church noted at the memorial gathering for Fr. Pops, “We live today in a world where money has become more important than human life. The military in the Philippines and many countries controlled by the multinationals are only taught to kill those who resist injustice, but not taught to respect human life and dignity.”

Father Pops provided services for poor indigenous communities in North Cotabato Mindanao and also campaigned for an end to the forced displacement of communities by large mining companies, an end to human rights abuses by paramilitary groups and for the fair distribution of land.

In recent years other progressive church people have been murdered for taking a stand for the rights of the people.  After taking an active stand in support of the striking sugar workers at the Hacienda Luisita, owned by the Cojuangco-Aquino family, the Most Rev. Alberto Ramento, Bishop of the Philippine Independent Church was murdered in 2006.   Assassins broke through the rectory where Bishop Ramento was staying at around 4:00 am of October 03, 2006 in the Parish of San Sebastian, Tarlac City. After waking him from his sleep the assassins fatally stabbed him.

“The best way to honour Father Pops and his great legacy of social work in Mindanao is to bring those responsible for extrajudicial killings of people’s advocates to justice.  We call on President Aquino, as Commander and Chief of the Armed Forces to ensure all those responsible for extrajudicial killings within the security services are brought to justice and paramilitary groups, such as the Bagani force are dismantled.” Walker concluded.

Reference:
Cameron Walker – ph.solidarity@gmail.com
Spokesperson, Auckland Philippines Solidarity (APS)

“Although the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program extended with reforms (CARPER) has stricken out the voluntary land transfer (VLT) option through which landowners have been able to retain land ownership by merely transferring their title to beneficiaries of their choice”, IBON said, “the program still has not guaranteed land transfer to tillers substantially.”

According to IBON, public clamor against schemes that allowed landowners to evade land redistribution led to the phasing-out of the VLT mode. However, the circumvention of the amendment by antedating VLT applications submitted 2009 onwards, and the exemption of VLT applications submitted between June 2008-2009 during the 14th Congress deliberations leading to CARPER, still finds 25.9% of the accomplished land acquisition and distribution (LAD) as of March 2013 under the VLT option.

Further, IBON pointed out that while CARPER supposedly focuses on the Voluntary Offer to Sell (VOS) and Compulsory Acquisition (CA) modes of redistribution, a larger 35% of LAD was accomplished through VOS and VLT from 1997-2012, while only 4% were distributed using the CA scheme.

IBON elaborated that most farmers whose lands were ‘acquired’ through VOS and VLT are among the growing number of tenants who enter into lease and leaseback arrangements with agribusiness corporations and former landowners. DAR data shows that leasehold farmers have increased to at least 1,216,430 in 2012 from 555,232 in 1988.

IBON research found farmers and farmworkers leasing awarded land back to corporations or landowners even to the point of getting hired by these entities. Other farmers lease the lands to corporations, organizations, and financiers who have their own pool of farm workers. According to the DAR, there are at least 48,436.9 hectares covered by Agribusiness Venture Agreements (AVA) that include joint venture agreements and contract growing. Aside from this, some farmer beneficiaries or farmworkers are given the option of resorting back to tenancy and obliged to pay a fixed rent for each cropping period.

IBON also said that the CARPER still retains the stock distribution option (SDO) and other non-land transfer schemes of the old CARP. The research group noted that the SDO was one of farmworkers’ decades-old issues with Hacienda Luisita, the distribution of which, up to now remains problematic.