Environmental activist group Kalikasan People’s Network for the Environment (Kalikasan PNE) condemned PNP Tarlac for mass arresting around 92 farmers and its supporters yesterday in Hacienda Tinang Village in Concepcion, Tarlac.
“We urge public authorities to free the arrested farmers and land reform advocates.
We condemn these dirty tactics that seem bent on sabotaging the distribution of the 200-hectare sugarcane estate to rightful beneficiaries,” said Leon Dulce, National Coordinator of Kalikasan PNE.
The farmers and agrarian reform advocates were conducting land preparation activities to prepare for the planting of various vegetable crops when the forces of the Philippine National Police (PNP) Tarlac arrived and surrounded the area and arrested the farmers and supporters, confiscating their cellphones, cameras, and other equipment.
The Agrarian Reform Beneficiaries (ARBs) have been tilling the disputed land for three decades, and are looking forward to Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) Undersecretary John Lana’s official installation of the ARBs this month. The Dominican Order of the Philippines previously placed Hacienda Tinang under Voluntary Land Transfer under the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Law.
“We urge public authorities to stop these attempts at sabotaging land reform over Hacienda Tinang’s monocrop sugarcane plantations. These are essentially green deserts that reduce the efficiency and nutrients of land, and it may create a weak and unhealthy plant growth without using an increasing amount of synthetic fertilizers. Redistributing Hacienda Tinang and supporting ARBS to alternatively practice agroecology will improve the land area’s agrobiodiversity,” Dulce added.
“We urge the PNP to release the arrested farmers and supporters as soon as possible. We also challenge the DAR to immediately implement the awarding of the 200-hectare land to the farmers,” Dulce ended. #
