For almost\u00a0 three decades<\/a>, Araneta Properties Inc. (API) has been reportedly threatening the farmers in San Jose del Monte City, Bulacan province in a bid to evict nearly 11,000 farmers.<\/p>\n Behind API is one of the Philippines\u2019 oldest and most influential elite families – the Araneta clan. Greggy Araneta, the President and CEO of API, is also the brother-in-law of Bongbong Marcos Jr., who is seeking the presidency in the country\u2019s national elections in May. Through Araneta\u2019s father-in-law, former Philippine dictator President Ferdinand Marcos, Greggy amassed a fortune of USD3.89 billion <\/a>in the 1980s via the conversion of government-owned entities into crony-led, private enterprises.<\/p>\n Farmers and various sectors fear that the political comeback of the Marcoses will result to even more human rights abuses to favour the interests of those in power and their cronies, such as what is happening in Tungkong Mangga.<\/p>\n In 2013,\u00a0 API\u2019s security allegedly shut down a major road in Tungkong Mangga, altering travel routes for community members. Construction materials were blocked from entering the community, effectively shutting down the approved expansion of an elementary school.<\/p>\n In 2015, PANAP\u2019s partner, Peasant Movement of the Philippines (KMP) and the Asian Peasant Coalition visited areas in San Jose del Monte. According to their fact-finding report, API\u2019s owners, including billionaire CEO Gregorio \u201cGreggy\u201d Araneta and his family, were claiming at least 3,500 hectares of land<\/a>. Some of the company\u2019s proposed projects include the expansion of the giant mall SM San Jose del Monte and the contentious MRT-7 railway project<\/a>.<\/p>\n On January 26, armed goons of API stormed the village and demolished four homes. When news of this latest demolition reached KMP, eight peasant advocates volunteered to visit Tungkong Mangga to investigate the complaints of farmers. On the morning of January 28,\u00a0 the fact-finding team made its way to the area.<\/p>\n They were\u00a0 met with the presence of armed gunmen; within an hour of the team\u2019s arrival, 10 individuals with handguns and high-powered rifles entered Tungkong Mangga, wearing masks to conceal their faces. The gunmen took pictures of the farmers and volunteers and kept watch from afar.<\/p>\n Undeterred, two members of the fact-finding team proceeded to introduce themselves to a farming family whose home had been demolished. The goons charged, running towards a team member filming the interaction<\/a>.<\/p>\n The gunshots began moments later.<\/p>\n A now-deleted Facebook video of the violence was recorded by a female farmer<\/a>, who ran as the shooting took place. \u201cHelp us, they\u2019re shooting at us. The children are distressed. They fired their guns and we don\u2019t know now what\u2019s happened inside<\/em>,\u201d she cried in Filipino.<\/p>\n Villagers reported that at least 30 goons were in Tungkong Mangga that day, including those who began the shootout in the morning. A member of the fact-finding team reported that the goons, in addition to repeatedly beating him, had taken his camera, wallet, and the rest of his personal belongings. According to villagers\u2019 accounts, the goons even took\u00a0 relief goods meant for those whose homes had been demolished.<\/p>\n Tungkong Mangga\u2019s farmers and their children are set to undergo psychosocial counselling to process the traumatising shootout.<\/p>\n Peasant groups in the Philippines expressed their condemnation of the incident and Araneta\u2019s perpetuation of violence against farmers. The Union of Agricultural Workers – Philippines (UMA) chairperson Antonio Flores denounced the shooting as a threat to both food sovereignty and land reform.<\/p>\n \u201cTo steal land with the intention of converting its use to non-agricultural purposes […] is the height of criminality. On top of displacing peasants, this land grab curtails the country\u2019s right to produce food,\u201d said Flores.<\/p>\n Tungkong Mangga\u2019s agricultural produce is\u00a0 popular in local agroeocology markets, as the farmers don\u2019t use harmful pesticides to grow crops. The village\u2019s namesake is its bountiful mangga<\/em>, Philippine mangoes that line the area. However, villagers hold its local banana with the most regard; the saba<\/em> banana\u00a0 of Tungkong Mangga is said to be one of the sweetest among local cultivars. Private interests threaten to get in the way of\u00a0 the decades-long relationship between the farmers and the land.<\/p>\n As the Aranetas and similar elite land grabber families continue to evict small communities, the farmers of Tungkong Mangga and their supporters remain steadfast in the struggle for genuine land reform. Last January 31, members of the fact-finding team filed a police report <\/a>to detail the human rights abuses in the community.<\/p>\n \u201cThe harassment on [January 28] is only the latest in the decades-long struggle of farmers for land,\u201d explained a team member after the filing. \u201cAs long as land is not owned by those whose sweat and blood is poured to bring food to our table, justice will never be served.\u201d ##<\/p>\n For more information and updates on the farmers of Tungkong Mangga and San Jose del Monte, please visit <\/em>Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas – KMP<\/em><\/a>, and <\/em>Alyansa ng Magbubukid sa Bulacan -AMB<\/em><\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n #NoLandNoLife Features<\/strong> discuss recent developments, events, and trends on land and resource grabbing and related human rights issues in the region as well as the factors and forces that drive it. Send us your feedback at nolandnolife@panap.net<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" BULACAN, PHILIPPINES \u2014 \u201cGET DOWN! Stop using your phones!\u201d a masked man ordered as they fired their guns. Over the next ten minutes, intermittent gunfire echoed across the village as people ran for cover, according to peasant advocates who lived to tell the story of how the community of Tungkong Mangga was terrorized last January…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":4387,"template":"","update_categories":[110],"class_list":["post-4386","panap_updates","type-panap_updates","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","update_categories-feature"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/panap.net\/beta\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/panap_updates\/4386","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/panap.net\/beta\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/panap_updates"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/panap.net\/beta\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/panap_updates"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/panap.net\/beta\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/panap.net\/beta\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/panap_updates\/4386\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/panap.net\/beta\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4387"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/panap.net\/beta\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4386"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"update_categories","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/panap.net\/beta\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/update_categories?post=4386"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/panap.net\/beta\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/SJDM-Feature-2022-0222-02.png\")
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/panap.net\/beta\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/SJDM-Feature-2022-0222-03.png\")