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MANILA – Gunmen opened fire on a group of sugar cane growers occupying part of a plantation in central Philippines, killing nine people and then burning three of the bodies, police said on Sunday.
Four other farmers, including two miners, survived Saturday's attack on a plantation near the town of Sagay in Western Negros province, and were under police protection as commandos pursued the attackers. the police said.
The people who were killed belonged to a farmers' union, the National Federation of Sugarcane Workers, which began occupying the area this weekend as part of a campaign to cultivate land covered by an agrarian reform of the government, announced the police. The state program, which dates back to the 1980s, calls for the redistribution of private and public farmland to small independent farmers.
The vacant land they occupied belongs to Hacienda Nene, a large sugarcane plantation under the government's land program, human rights activists and the group of farmers said.
The initial police investigation revealed that farmers were resting in their tents when about forty armed men surprised them. Those who survived managed to disperse and hide and reported the incident to the police a few hours later.
The bodies of three female victims were "burned by the suspects," according to the police report.
"They were sacked by strangers while they were already resting in their respective tents," said Cristina Palabay, head of the Karapatan rights group, calling the attack "brutal and shameless".
"We call on the Commission on Human Rights to conduct an independent and thorough investigation into the massacre," said Ms. Palabay in a statement. "We are only one with the relatives of the victims of the Sagay massacre in their appeal to justice."
The farmers' union accused the private security personnel of the hacienda of being at the origin of the massacres. The owners of the plantation did not immediately comment.
Chief Superintendent John Bulalacao, the regional chief of police, said Sunday that a police commando unit was looking for attackers, who had not been identified.
"The Special Action Force is now in pursuit of prosecution," Chief Bulalacao said in a statement.
The agrarian measure was signed by President Corazon C. Aquino in the late 1980s, with the aim of redistributing about 8 million hectares of land to farmers in order to contribute to poverty reduction.
The program was extended twice and, according to the government, five million hectares had been distributed last year. But redistribution has long been problematic. Many owners objected despite the measures taken to compensate them and sought to circumvent the program. Large agricultural areas have remained under the control of large companies and family companies.
When President Rodrigo Duterte came to power two years ago, he asked leftist leader Rafael Mariano, who has already represented farmers in the Philippine Congress, to lead the land reform department.
Mr. Mariano promised to lead the land redistribution, but his appointment failed to signal Congress and he was then replaced.
