The Katipunan ng mga Samahang Magbubukid sa Timog Katagalugan (Kasama-TK) condemned the police and military for intensified harassment against farmers in Lupang Ramos and Barangay Tartaria, both in Cavite, since the second week of September.

On September 9, state forces installed a checkpoint at the entrance to Lupang Ramos in Dasmariñas City purportedly for the election “gun ban” that scheduled to begin in January 2025. The following day, 50 elements fro the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), Philippine National Police, Task Force Ugnay, and the local government raided the community of Lupang Ramos using the pretext of inspections related to the African Swine Fever.

Farmers and residents immediately set up a barricade, aware that the armed agents’ forced entry was aimed to intimidate them into leaving the area. The Katipunan ng mga Lehitimong Magsasaka at Mamamayan sa Lupang Ramos (Kasama-LR) who have long been fighting for the rights of residents on the land led the action.

“The presence of the police and the military who lead the red-tagging, harassment, intimidation and surveillance of farmers and residents of our community is a great danger, threat and terror against our community,” Kasama-LR said.

Concurrent with this incident, the brazen intimidation by soldiers and police in Lupang Tartaria in Silang alarmed the residents. Four police cars parked for several hours in front of a store in Tartaria. It also came with a 6×6 military truck with three guns on the roof, and three V150 military tanks.

Kasama-TK said similar cases of threats, harassment, and intimidation in farmlands are relentless in Southern Tagalog led by Task Force Ugnay and National Task Force-Elcac. The group is aware that this is part of a coordinated attack by the state, which is characterized by a series of cases of torture against farmers’ rights advocates in Rizal and Mindoro, forced surrender of coconut farmers and peasants in Quezon, and attacks by the 59th IB against volunteer researchers of Kasama-TK in Batangas.