State forces and private guards have continually harassed and attempted to evict residents and farmers in Barangay Viga, Angadanan, Isabela since October. The Gamboa family is seizing 23.6 hectares of land that for 50 years has been tilled and inhabited by peasant members of the Panagkaykaysa ti Mannalon a Maag-agawan ti Daga (Pumalag).

In 2023, the Gamboas and local police began evicting farmers and fencing off the area. The eviction resumed on October 17 when the Gamboas sent private guards, who then built an outpost.

On October 30, Police Chief Major Rassel Tuliao and the Angadanan town administrator visited the farmers to force them to negotiate with the Gamboas. They attempted to bribe the farmers to leave the area.

The police chief and two police officers returned on November 2 to order the private guards to confiscate and burn the farmers’ placards and streamers. When the residents and police clashed, the police chief pulled out at pointed his gun at the farmers. Three farmers were arrested, and the guards threatened to destroy the farmers’ crops.

“Amid consecutive storms, the land-grabbers, their financers, and the police are merciless,” said Danggayan Dagiti Mannalon ti Cagayan Valley (Danggayan), the regional chapter of the Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas. The group emphasized that there is no justice for farmers in this kind of state.

Land struggle

The 23.6-hectare property was fraudulently titled to Clodualdo Gamboa in 1938, despte the fact that he neither tilled nor resided in the area. He transferred ownership of the land to Eufemio Torres in 1969.

The peasant families who tilled the land became Torres’ tenants. The land was later divided among Torres’ children, who eventually mortgaged the property. As a result, the land was placed under the land distribution program, and the farmers were each granted a Certificate of Land Ownership Award (CLOA). Some farmers who received CLOAs had even paid the Land Bank of the Philippines in full.

In 2021, the Gamboas suddenly reappeared in the area, carrying falsified titles that had previously been canceled. Danggayan noted that the title included inaccuracies because of the rushed effort to forge the document. To evict the farmers, the Gamboas sued those who refused to leave the land they have long tilled and inhabited.

The Gamboas also presented fake certificates from the Department of Agrarian Reform in court, claiming the land was uninhabited. They used deception and undermined the legal process, leaving the farmers unable to defend themselves in court. The farmers were forced to sign fake documents, blank papers, and other papers to legitimize the land seizure.

“They have been tenants on the land for over 50 years, no new landowner can evict them,” Danggayan emphasized. “Clear as day, there has been no genuine agrarian reform from the Marcos Sr to the Marcos Jr regimes.”

KMP national chairperson and Makabayan Coalition senatorial candidate Ka Daning Ramos expressed solidarity with the farmers’ struggle. Ramos supports the farmers’ call for immediate government action and condemnation of the state’s systematic bias in favor of land grabbers.