Pangasinan police validating 'harassment' of onion farmers by Bayambang cops

The Pangasinan Provincial Police Office (PPO) is validating the report that police in Bayambang had allegedly harassed onion farmers, including one who appeared in a recent Senate hearing.

In a statement Thursday, Pangasinan Police director Police Colonel Jeff Fanged vowed that concerned police personnel would be held liable if the allegation was true.

“This Office is on the process of validating the alleged harassment committed by Bayambang MPS and if the allegations were true, this Office will subject them for corrective measures and such actions by our colleagues will not be not tolerated,” he said.  

“The public is assured that PPO will remain committed to our sworn duties and responsibilities to the people that we have sworn to serve and protect and enforce the law without fear or favor,” he added.

The statement was issued after Senator Imee Marcos on Thursday said she had received information that the police went to the house of Merly Gallardo and other onion farmers allegedly upon orders from the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) and the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC).

According to Marcos, the farmers were being pressured to sign a sworn statement that they were retracting their revelations made during the Senate investigation.

She showed a photo of an advisory from DILG Pangasinan signed by Director Virgilio Sison that seeks additional information regarding the five farmers who were driven to suicide, among them Gallardo’s husband, by financial ruin.

The subject of the advisory read as "Request by NTF-ELCAC for the verification of a reported case regarding the suicide of five farmers in Pangasinan."

Fanged said they have received an order from Police Regional Office 1 (PRO1) chief Police Brigadier General John Chua to validate the report and confirmed that they indeed received a request from Sison.

“In relation to this, it was found out that Bayambang PNP acted on the request of Mr. Virgilio Sison, Provincial Director, DILG to validate the report as published in the media ‘Radio Mindanao Network’,” he said.

According to Jun Veneracion’s "24 Oras" report on Friday, Gallardo appeared before the Senate agriculture, food, and agrarian reform committee on Monday.

She said they went into debt in 2021 due to losses on planting onions in Pangasinan. This was allegedly the reason her husband killed himself.

Gallardo said a few days after the hearing, policemen came to their house and urged her to sign a sworn statement.

“Natakot at nagulat din kasi pabalik balik. Aburido na ako,” she said.

“Opo sir. Yun lang naman ang sabi nila yung statement ko pipirmahan. Kaya lang ayaw ko naman magpirma,” she added.

“Yung sa sinumpaang salaysay yung number 9 kasi dun yung dulo nakalagay doon parang nire recant ni nanay yung mga paunang statement niya sa Senado,” Elvin Jerome Laceda of Young Farmers Challenge Club of the Philippines said.

Interior Secretary Benhur Abalos ordered the provincial director in Pangasinan to explain the issue. Abalos also ordered an investigation into the alleged harassment of the onion farmers.

“Kung totoo yung accusation na may pinapapirma it should never happen. We are here to serve and protect dapat hindi ganun,” Abalos said.

The PNP, meanwhile, apologized for the incident even as it maintained its personnel only did their duty. 

“Ang PNP po ay humihingi ng paumanhin sa inyo at sa inyong pamilya, kung ang aming ginawa ay nagdulot ng pangamba at takot. Subalit sana po kayo ay magkaroon ng pagtitiwala sa ating kapulisan sapagkat kami naman ay gumagawa lang ng aming trabaho,” PNP Public Information Office chief Police Colonel Red Maranan said.

The NTF-ELCAC denied any involvement in the matter. 

“Walang kinalaman dito ang NTF-ELCAC. So we deny any involvement or participation in this information,” NTF-ELCAC executive director Emmanuel Salamat said.—Joviland Rita and Richa Noriega/KBK/VBL, GMA Integrated News