In just six months, three farm rights activists have been killed under mysterious circumstances. CBCP-NASSA director calls on the government to conduct a "thorough" investigation and bring the perpetrators to justice. Agrarian reform and land ownership are the driving force behind the age-old dispute.

Manila (AsiaNews/CBCP) - For the Catholic Church of the Philippines, the recent murder of farm leader Menelaus "Melon" Barcia, the third in just six months, is an act of intimidation designed to stop farm activists from pursuing land reform. In a statement issued by its social action secretariat, the Church calls on the Filipino government in Manila to respond promptly to the long festering land reform issue.

"It is saddening and infuriating that another farmer leader was killed for the second time in Hacienda Dolores," said in a statement Mgr Broderick Pabillo, director of the National Secretariat for Social Action, Justice and Peace/Caritas Philippines (CBCP-NASSA).

The community, the bishop notes, has been living in an atmosphere of "threats and fear" as it fights to secure its rights against landowners.

Barcia's killing on 2 May, the third land reform-related murder in six months, is "an apparent attempt to sow fear and dampen the spirits of the poor tillers struggling for their rights," the prelate explained

For the latter, such murders are a "shameful" form of intimidation against farmers. The "frequency of the killings reflects impunity on the part of law and justice enforcers."

The director of the CBCP-NASSA told the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) to take immediate action to solve land dispute on Hacienda Dolores, especially with respect to the ancestral domain and the issue relating to agrarian reform (CARP).

Likewise, the Filipino Church is standing by the Archdiocese of San Fernando (Pampanga, Central Luzon), the prelate said. For many years, local Church officials have been pushing the government "to uphold the law and protect the rights of the farmers."

Along with 300 other farmers and activists, Barcia was pushing for the redistribution of the 761-hectare Hacienda Dolores, a historic estate in Pampanga province, which they had farmed for more than 50 years.

In January this year, Armand Padino was also killed.

Land issues are a major problem across Asia, from Pakistan to Vietnam, Indonesia to the Philippines, etc.

"We urge the Department of Justice and the Commission on Human Rights to conduct an immediate and thorough investigation, identify the perpetrators and masterminds, and bring them to justice," Mgr Pabillo said.

• philippines
• farmers
• murder
• land
• reform
• catholic
• church