In Cadiz City, Negros Occidental, 79th IB soldiers threatened farmers who were supposed to join the anti-corruption rally and mark Peasant Month in Bacolod City on October 21. The soldiers targeted members of a local association of sugarcane workers.

A truckload of soldiers reportedly went to Barangay Caduhaan on the morning of October 21. The military unit summoned the farm workers for a “meeting.”

The 79th IB was accompanied by landlord Rex Abdon and the soldiers’ paid agents when they went to the village. Abdon and the soldiers told the farm workers not to file petitions for their demands.

The soldiers violated the farmers’ rights to express their opinions and participate in protests. This also terrorized them and their families.

Barangay Caduhaan farmers wanted to call for accountability of those involved in the Marcos regime’s widespread corruption. They said that these acts of corruption continue while they suffer poverty, get dispossessed of land, and receive no social services from the government.