Colmenares: Military, gov’t responsible for Negros farmers’ massacre

Bayan Muna chairman and former Representative Neri Colmenares on Sunday held the Duterte administration and the military responsible for the murder of nine farmers in Sagay City, Negros Occidental on Saturday, supposedly over a land dispute.

In a statement, Colmenares said that the military had earlier alleged that land cultivation areas (LCAs) being maintained by agricultural sugar workers and farmers in Negros were actually New People’s Army's (NPA) communal farms.

"That is really absurd because the issue of land is a legitimate issue. This is an attempt of the Duterte government to quell any form of protest by criminalizing legitimate demands," he said.

The statement also said that John Milton “Butch” Lozande, secretary general of both Unyon ng Manggagawa sa Agrikultura and the Negros Federation of Sugar Workers (NFSW), also holds the government and the military to blame for the attack.

The nine farmers, which included four women and two minors, were members of the NFSW.

They were in Hacienda Nene in Purok Firetree in Barangay Bulanon, reportedly resting, when "more or less 40 unidentified armed men" fired upon them at around 9:45 p.m. on Saturday.

"We demand an immediate impartial probe on this massacre and we will not stop until justice has been served," Colmenares said.

In an interview on Balitanghali, provincial police director Senior Superintendent Rodolfo Castil said that the victims were newly recruited by the NFSW and that they were occupying a plot of land.

"Ang lumalabas na motibo ay ang agawan sa lupa," he said.

Human rights group Karapatan also condemned the killing.

"Karapatan strongly condemns this brutal and brazen incident, reflective of a kind of system that further strangles the victims of landlessness and poverty," the group said in a statement on Sunday.

"We call on the Commission on Human Rights to conduct an independent and thorough investigation on the massacre. We are one with the kin of the victims in the Sagay massacre in their call for justice," the group said. — Erwin Colcol/BM, GMA News