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Philippine land reform leader killed

Victim's wife also critically injured in attack in Pampanga
Philippine land reform leader killed
Published: May 05, 2014 09:26 AM GMT
Updated: May 04, 2014 10:47 PM GMT

Unidentified gunmen shot and killed a peasant leader in the province of Pampanga on May 2, the farmers' group Peasant Movement of the Philippines reported.

Nemelao Barcia, 54, and his wife, Maria, 54, were ambushed at about 9 pm while they were driving home from Angeles City. Barcia, a councilor of Hacienda Dolores village and leader of the United Residents of Hacienda Dolores, died in the hospital while his wife remains in "critical condition".

Rafael Mariano, the organization’s chairman, said Barcia was the latest victim of land related killings and violence in Hacienda Dolores.

"This cowardly act is a desperate attempt by real estate giants to terrorize farmers fighting for their rights to the land," Mariano said.

The nearly 5,000-acre Hacienda Dolores has been a subject of an agrarian dispute. Real estate developers have been claiming the land after the Department of Agrarian Reform in 2005 declared it "not agricultural" and exempted from the coverage of land reform.

The real estate developer Ayala Land is claiming about 2,800 acres of Hacienda Dolores to be converted to "an integrated mixed-use development" that will include a business and industrial park, retail centers, recreational areas and residential neighborhoods.

Mariano said that "armed goons" shot farmers Arman Padiño, Noel and Reynold Tumali who were on their way to their farm last January. Padiño died while Noel and Reynold were wounded.

"We challenge Congress to have the guts to investigate real estate developers in Hacienda Dolores and bring the main culprits in the killings of farmers behind bars," Mariano said.

Proposals have been raised in Congress to extend the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program for another year or until June 30, 2015.

The country's agrarian reform program mandates that big landholdings are broken up and distributed to farmers and workers. Each farmer is then given a "certificate of land ownership award". Under the law, a landowner can only retain 12 acres.

Some 1.7 million acres of land remain to be distributed to farmers.

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