16 Killed In Fierce Fighting In Southern Philippines

COTABATO CITY, Philippines (Mindanao Examiner / Oct. 27, 2008) – At least 15 Moro Islamic Liberation Front rebels were killed in fierce gun battle Monday in the southern Philippines, officials said.

Lt. Col. Julieto Ando, a regional army spokesman, confirmed the fighting and said many rebels were killed and wounded in the skirmishes in the village of Diate in Mamasapano town in Maguindanao province.

He said one soldier was killed and four others wounded in the fighting.“Reports on the ground indicated heavy casualties on the rebel side,” he told the Mindanao Examiner.

But other military sources said as many as 15 rebels were slain and dozens more wounded in the clashes.

The MILF has said that fighting was raging in Maguindanao and other provinces nearby.

Authorities captured on Monday a senior MILF commander, Macaslang Angni, who was wounded in a gun battle over the weekend in Lanao del Sur province, where fighting also erupted Sunday.

He was captured in the town of Bacolod in the neighboring province of Lanao del Norte.

Angni was rushed to hospital under police escorts because of his wounds after being shot by soldiers in the leg and shoulder, according to a statement released by the Lanao del Norte provincial government.

It was unknown how the 64-year old Angni was captured, but provincial authorities said the rebel leader is considered one of the most wanted criminals in Lanao del Norte.

The MILF is the country’s largest Muslim rebel group which is fighting for self-determination the past three decades.

Peace talks between Manila and the MILF collapsed last month after MILF forces launched a series of deadly attacks against civilian targets in Mindanao over the failed signing of territorial land deal in August. (Mindanao Examiner)

Farmers Harassed In The Philippines

BACOLOD CITY, Philippines - Peasant federation Task Force Mapalad has condemned the filing of "inciting to sedition" charges against five farmers from the Arroyo-owned Hacienda Bacan who were arrested Wednesday while trying to hold a protest rally in front of the Bacolod City Plaza as President Gloria Arroyo delivered her speech at the opening of the Maskarra Festival.

TFM president Jose Rodito Angeles said the police originally intended to file charges of public scandal against the farmers but they were informed by police chief Luisito Acebuche, Station 1 commander, that the Presidential Security Group insisted on the filing of sedition charges.

"We strongly condemn the filing of sedition charges. Reading the fine print of what had been done to us; this government has shown its blatant disregard for the rights of landless farmers to own and till their land. There is no basis in law to rationalize sedition raps against landless farmers calling for legitimate demands such as the implementation of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Programme," said Angeles.

He added: " We strongly urge the President to make good her public promise last May to distribute Hacienda Bacan, which is owned by the family of her husband," he said.

Angeles clarified that, contrary to reports, they were not part of the group that jeered and heckled President Arroyo during her speech at the opening of the Maskarra Festival.

"We were at the Bacolod Plaza and immediately dispersed and arrested after we put up our placards calling for the immediate distribution of the 157-hectare Hacienda Bacan owned by the family of the First Gentleman Mike Arroyo," said Angeles.

Angeles said they had not called for the ouster of President Arroyo contrary to media reports.

"It is high time that the President order the Agrarian Reform Department to continue CARP processes in the distribution of Hacienda Bacan by issuing Certificates of Land Ownership Awards (CLOAs) to qualified farmer beneficiaries. The Land Bank of the Philippines must now issue a cash deposit in the name of the landowner, the Rivulet Development
Corporation after a property valuation was finished more than two months ago," he said.

Angeles decried the continuing detention of the five farmers as a result of the filing of sedition raps. “The charges must be dropped immediately and our farmers must be released soonest,” Angeles stated.

They were identified as Hermigildo Padilla, Everlito Algona, Bonbon Algona, Noel Estaris Jr., and Gerry Batalla. A sixth farmer was earlier reported arrested but was able to slip away from his captors. (Lani Factor)

Agrarian Headquarters Attacked In Central RP

CEBU, Philippines (Mindanao Examiner / Jan. 23, 2008) – Unidentified men exploded a grenade in an attack early Thursday at a provincial office of the Department of Agrarian Reform in Negros Occidental in central Philippines.

Police said the men tossed a grenade at the DAR compound in Bacolod City in Negros Occidental before dawn, but it reported no casualties in the attack that shattered glass windows and doors.

No individual or group claimed responsibility for the blast blamed by farmers to private gangs of landowners opposed to the extension of the government's Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program.

The peasant federation Task Force Mapalad (TFM) condemned the attack. "We condemn in the strongest possible terms the attack on the provincial office of the DAR. While the police are still investigating the incident, there is no doubt for us that this is the start of another round of harassment by landlords opposing the extension of the CARP," Edna Sobrecaray, TFM spokesperson, said.

Police is still investigating the motive of the attack.

"Those behind the blast may be the same landlords who were behind the series of killings of TFM farmers. Now, these landlords are out to threaten even government officials supporting the extension of the CARP," Sobregacay said without further elaborating.

The attack occurred ahead of a schedule meeting between farmers and agrarian officials over the implementation of the CARP in the province. Sobrecaray said farmers would not be cowed by unscrupulous landlords hindering the implementation of the agrarian reform in Negros.

"We are ready to defend our ranks. We will not be cowed by landlords who want to hinder justice. We had shed blood to ensure that justice would reign. We will do this again, if this is the only way to fight for our rights to the lands we till," she said.

The government's agrarian reform program may be extended after President Gloria Arroyo certified as urgent a bill seeking a 10-year extension of the CARP, which is set to end in June 2008, ten years after it was passed. CARP was the result of the passage of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Law (CARL) in 1988.

The passage of the CARL under Republic Act 6655 in 1988 was hailed as a historic occasion. CARL promised to redistribute agricultural lands -- in several phases -- to those who actually till them.

The CARP is primarily a social reform measure and addresses the need for a more equitable distribution of land ownership. Its end-goal is to improve the standards of living of beneficiaries and promote greater economic activity in the rural areas.

Most of the government funding for CARP came from the recovered P50-billion of the so-called Marcos' ill-gotten wealth; however, only P10 billion was allocated to the DAR, the rest of the money was distributed to other agencies, including P8-million for human rights victims under then President Ferdinand Marcos. Belgium, Spain and Japan among the countries that are supporting the CARP. (Mindanao Examiner)

Bacolod Police, Humirit Ng Malaking Pondo

BACOLOD (Mindanao Examiner / 03 Apr) – Kinukuwesyon ngayon ng mga militanteng party list groups ang biglang paghingi ng halos P13-milyong budget ng lokal na pulisya para sa umano’y implementasyon ng programa para sa siguridad nitong lungsod.

Sinabi mismo ni Felipe Gelle, ang pinuno ng Bayan, ang na may gumagalaw na sa City Council upang maipasa ang isang resolusyon ukol sa kahilingan ng pulisya.

Posible umanong magamit ang salapi sa halalan at sa pagsupil ng karapatan ng mga mamamayan na ipahayag ang kanilang damdamin ukol sa pamahalaang Arroyo.

Gagamitin umano ang budget sa implementasyon ng internal security operations na kahintulad sa deployment ng mga sundalo sa Metro Manila at sa ibang bahagi ng Mindanao.

Ang ISO ay bahagi naman ng anti-terrorism and anti-criminality programs ng pulisya.

Gagamitin naman umano ng pulisya ang salapi sa pagsasanay ng mga parak at barangay tanods at sa pagpapatupad ng katahimikan sa Bacolod.

Matindi ang impluwensya ng New People’s Army sa Bacolod at sa lalawigan ng Negros. (Mindanao Examiner)