Farmers and farmworkers of Hacienda Michaela in Barangay Talotog, Murcia, Negros Occidental stood militantly against the scheme of Ta-ala Farms, Inc. to grab their 22-hectare farmland. Since January 12, armed guards and company agents have encamped to drive residents away from the land they have long cultivated.

Company personnel aboard three small trucks and three backhoes stormed the hacienda that day. One of the trucks carried armed guards. They set up tents and dug up the farmed land using the backhoes. They terrorized, threatened, and aimed guns at the peasants. They even tried to handcuff three women farmers, injuring one of them. The company started building a wall around the grabbed land on January 14.

Company owner Bonnie Ta-ala is claiming the land, after “purchasing” it from landlord Arthur Bayona. Ta-ala already attempted to seize the land in October 2025 but failed.

According to the Hacienda Michaela Farmers and Farmworkers Association, selling the land is illegal since it was covered by government distribution under the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program. The Negros Occidental office of the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) issued a Notice of Coverage for the land as early as 2009.

The Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas-Negros and the National Federation of Sugar Workers picketed on January 20 at the DAR Negros Island Region office in Bacolod City to denounce DAR’s sluggish land distribution. The groups said the incident exposed anew the rotteness of the state’s land reform program, and the continuing violence of the feudal landlord rule in the country.

Farmers of Hacienda Michaela won broad support from youth groups, artists, and other sectors.