Land-occupation in northwestern Leyte:
Unity and resolute resistance

Basahin ang artikulong ito sa Pilipino

More than 1,000 families occupy over 2,000 hectares of farmland in northwestern Leyte comprising 30 large barangays in Ormoc City and the towns Kananga, San Isidro, Leyte, Albuera and Villaba among others.

Peasants occupy and till unproductive sugarcane farms, mostly abandoned by the owners or seized by banks after going bankrupt due to the slump in the sugar industry in the 1980s.

Along with the sustained land-occupation campaign, farmers have also achieved victories in the struggle for lower land rent and higher wages for workers in corn, coconut and sugarcane farms. These struggles, marked by close coordination among peasants in different barangays, enjoy the warm support of workers and the middle forces.

OCCUPATION OF ABAN-DONED LAND. Land in northwestern Leyte is monopolized by a handful of big landlords. The largest sugarcane plantations and some of the biggest coconut farms and pasturelands in Eastern Visayas can be found here.

Spontaneous occupation of abandoned land has been occurring in the place as early as the 1980s. Efforts of different peasant families and groups were at first sporadic. In 1995, the Samahan han Gudti nga Parag-uma-Sinirangang Bisayas (SAGUPA-SB or Association of Small Farmers-Eastern Visayas) unified and coordinated these actions. The campaign spread among adjacent barangays and towns, along highways and coastal areas, as well as outside sugarcane farms.

THE LANDLORDS STRIKE BACK. Although most of the land being occupied by the farmers are abandoned, their struggle has not been an easy one. Despite the fact that the peasant families have been tilling the farms for some time, some landlords and banks attempted to retake the land and sell them to other landlords and businessmen.

Among those drawn by the prospect of grabbing land to expand his ranch was Melchor Larrazabal. The Larrazabals are a powerful clan of landlords who have been lording it over Leyte for decades.

In 1996, farmers in some places were able to compel the Department of Agrarian Reform to decide to distribute land. The decision was not implemented, however, due to maneuvers by landlords like Lito Osme�a.

The Osme�as are a powerful clan in Cebu. At that time, Lito Osme�a already owned a 100-hectare land where he planned to build an airport. He also wanted to build a golf course and illegal brothels for pedophiles in San Isidro town.

Osme�a and Larra-zabal took the lead in perpetrating violence and filing trumped-up criminal charges against SAGUPA-SB and individual peasants who occupied the land.

VIOLENCE AGAINST PEASANTS. In 1999, Larrazabal ordered the killing of a barangay captain who was a leader of SAGUPA-SB. In Kananga town, peasant leader Reynaldo �Teting� Villota was killed by policemen and CAFGU elements in August 1999 on orders from Loloy Labra, a despotic landlord.

In spite of continued harassment, however, the farmers bravely paid tribute to their slain comrades during the wake. Thousands of farmers joined the funeral march. Waving red banners and raising placards and streamers, they swore to continue with the struggle for which the two martyrs shed their blood.

Up to the present, the peasants face the charges and threats against them. They continue with their pickets, demonstrations, camp-outs and other forms of protest. Whenever a peasant leader is arrested or detained, they troop to jails to extend moral support to their comrades. There have been cases where prisoners were granted temporary freedom by the courts due to the peasants� mass actions. There were also cases where the court was compelled to reduce bail.

Because their adversaries are powerful in government, the peasants lost many of their cases in court. But they never left their land. Instead, their conviction has grown even stronger. In one pastureland, for example, the number of families occupying the land and helping each other till it swelled from 150 to 300 despite the harassment. Because landlords send goons to uproot the crops from time to time, the farmers decided to guard their farms in shifts.

The peasant�s close cooperation in sustaining their struggle and strengthening their ranks are their effective weapon. They keep on raising their consciousness and their fighting will in spite of the attempts of landlords to impede their advance. With their unity and resolve to fight, they will surely continue reaping victory after victory.

October 2002
English Edition

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