THE massacre of the nine farmers, including four women and two minors, at Hacienda Nene in Barangay Bulanon, Sagay City Saturday night is plain barbaric and brutal.
On Saturday morning, some farmers who belonged to the National Federation of Sugar Workers occupied the farm allegedly owned by Carmen Tolentino.
Later, some unidentified armed men peppered with bullets the victims’ makeshift shelter, killing the nine farmers instantly.
The victims were already resting at their improvised shelter when they were attacked.
Three of them were allegedly burned by the assailants.
Governor Alfredo Marañon Jr., who immediately went to Sagay City Police Station Sunday to check on the progress of the case, has ordered the policemen to thoroughly investigate the incident.
The governor, who strongly condemned the attack, said P500,000 reward will be offered to anybody in exchange for information that will lead to the arrest of the perpetrators of the massacre.
The reward money will come from Sagay City Mayor Alfredo Marañon III, the governor’s son, while the remaining P250,000 will be given by the provincial government.
The police should conduct a deeper probe on the brutal killing of the helpless farmers.
NFSW also condemned the killing of its members.
The group stressed that setting up land cultivation areas is to ward off the inevitable hunger brought by the “tiempo muerto,” or dead season in the sugar industry, on properties covered by agrarian reform but remain undistributed and idle. Farmers plant vegetables, banana, corn and root crops on these areas to feed their families.
“It is morally right and just for the sugar workers and peasants in Negros Occidental to undertake their Land Cultivation Areas especially with a regime that has no land reform program to offer. Instead it red baits those who assert their rights to the land,” NFSW said.
We joined the call for justice for the slain farmers.