PORAC, Pampanga- Farmers from Hacienda Dolores here and other parts of Central Luzon announced yesterday they will hold a “regional caravan for land and justice” on Jan. 21 in front of this town’s municipal building before marching on to the main gate of Clark freeport.
“Farmers in Hacienda Dolores have become usual targets of harassment, worse, of brutal killing such as what happened to Arman Padino who was shot in the head last January 12 and died the next day,” said Alyansa ng Magbubukid ng Gitnang Luson (AMGL) Chairman Joseph Canlas.
He said the Hacienda Dolores farmers will hold their protest in front of the Porac municipal hall from 8 a.m. to 12 noon, followed by a caravan towards Clark main gate in Angeles City where the protest is set from 3:30 to 4:30 p.m. The farmers then will join other farmers who are set to go to Mendiola, Manila to mark the 27th year of the Mendiola Massacre commemoration.
Canlas said the incident at Hacienda Dolores last Jan. 12 was related to the land reform controversy there which is being claimed by various private firms, including the Leonardo- Lachenal Holdings, Inc. (LLHI), FL Property Management Corp. (FLPMC) and Ayala Land.
The controversial areas involved at least some 754 hectares of the 2,099-hectare Hacienda Dolores near an interchange of the Subic-Clark-Tarlac Expressway (SCTEx). The farmers organized themselves into the Aniban ng mga Magsasaka ng Hacienda Dolores (Aniban) in their fight for the lands which they claimed to have been tilled by their ancestors way back in 1835.
