Foreign companies and the big comprador bourgeoisie are ruthlessly seizing the natural resources and ancestral lands of indigenous people and peasants in the country. Using the police, the military, and the courts, they trample on the farmers’ right to land, suppress their resistance, and exploit the law to drive them out of their own land.

In Sitio Marihangin, Barangay Bugsuk, Balabac, Palawan, nine land grabbers filed “squatting” or illegal habitation charges against 282 indigenous residents of the sitio. Those charged included the deceased and even children. On December 17, a court representative with armed police went to the sitio to serve a TRO or temporary restraining order against the residents.

The order forbids blocking the land grabbers from entering the sitio for 20 days. Residents said the case is clearly linked to San Miguel Corporation (SMC)’s plan to seize their ancestral land. For several years, SMC subsidiary Bricktree Properties has been trying to claim the land for a 25,000-hectare tourism infrastructure meant for the Balabac rich elite.

In Dupax del Norte, Nueva Vizcaya, the court twice ordered the dismantling of the residents’ barricade against Woggle Corporation. On December 10, residents and church people successfully stopped the attempted demolition. On December 12, police returned to dismantle the residents’ barricade in Upper Tacbao, Barangay Bitnong. The company retaliated after finding its excavator burned that same day.

With the support of PNP Dupax Del Norte, they threatened, harassed, and insulted the barricading residents and destroyed their belongings. They blocked two female residents and forced them to undress. The police also aimed guns at residents for asserting their rights. They stole the residents’ cell phones and IDs when the latter attempted to document the violence.