The Mapalacsiao village council has passed a resolution demanding the immediate pull out of the soldiers from NOLCOM. Since March 30, thousands of hacienda residents have signed a petition denouncing the deployment and demanding immediate troop withdrawal.

Harassment

However, Galang said union members who have been conducting the petition signing are themselves being harassed by the military.

In Barangay Pasajes on the evening of March 30, residents Noel Mallari and Alvin Grafil were taken by the military to the barangay hall for questioning. After the interrogation, the military took the signed petition papers and sent them home.

On the same day in Barangay Cutcut II, 13 Ulwu members were also taken by the military to the barangay hall for interrogation. Afterwards, they were asked to sign affidavits and another sheet of paper reportedly stating that they are “returning to the fold of the law.”

Galang said however that the 13 farm workers refused to sign the latter.

Several cases of looting and cattle rustling have been reported allegedly committed by the soldiers. In one barangay, soldiers were reported to have caught fish from a communal pond without permission from village officials, adding to the disgust and anger of residents.

Union officials had to seek refuge in safe places because the soldiers were constantly asking for their whereabouts.

As of this writing, three companies from the 69th Infantry Battalion and 703rd Infantry Brigade are engaged in a tug-of-war in eight of the 10 outlying villages in the hacienda: Asturias, Lourdes, Bantog and Cutcut II, in Tarlac City, Parang, Mabilog and Pando in Concepcion town and Motrico in La Paz town.

The soldiers patrol the fields and enter the villages at night. In the morning, irate residents would ask them to leave.

At odds

Soldiers and police and the hacienda community have been at odds since the bitter labor dispute started almost five months ago. Ten people have been killed, including a priest and a city councilor who both supported the strike, while more than 100 undred hacienda residents and their supporters have been wounded and jailed since.

The unions have openly defied two return-to-work orders issued by the Department of Labor and Employment (DoLE) and continue to man some 14 picket lines surrounding the sugar mill. They blame the killings on government troops and the Cojuangcos.

On Nov. 6, last year, the 5,000-strong United Luisita Workers’ Union (ULWU), the plantation workers’ union and the Central Azucarera de Tarlac Labor Union (CATLU), the sugar mill workers’ union, went on strike simultaneously over the termination of 327 plantation workers and the deadlock of the collective bargaining agreement (CBA) negotiations being held also simultaneously with management.

On the night of the first day of the strike and into the next morning, hundreds of police and soldiers tried to disperse the striking workers at the picket line in Gate 1 of the sugar mill using truncheons, tear gas and water cannons but the workers managed to withstand the assaults. Nenita Mahinay, the unions’ lawyer, maintains the dispersal attempts were illegal and inhuman.

On Nov. 15, about 300 anti-riot police again attempted to remove the human cordon in Gate 1 but failed. The next day, more than 1,000 soldiers and police, backed by army tanks, armored personnel carriers (APCs) and fire trucks attempted for the fourth time to disperse the workers in Gate 1. When tear gas and water cannons failed to dislodge some 5,000 workers, their families and supporters at the picket line, shooting started and seven strikers were killed.

“We cannot blame the people for being wary at the presence of soldiers. They are perceived as instruments of the Cojuangco family, sent to drive us away from the picket line and, eventually, from our homes and our claim on the hacienda land,” Galang told Bulatlat.

“After the deaths of our fellow workers and supporters, hate and fear of the military and police have struck the people of the hacienda,” Galang said. (Bulatlat.com)

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