Task Force Mapalad farmers trooped on June 8 to the Philippine National Police headquarters in Camp Crame for an audience with PNP Director General Oscar Calderon to seek the relief of two Negros Occidental police officers—Senior Supt. Pedro Merced, chief of the 6th Provincial Regional Mobile Group (PRMG), and PO1 Rolly Padasas, detachment commander of the PRMG unit in Hacienda Velez-Malaga.
TFM president Jose Rodito Angeles said they are preparing administrative charges against Merced and Padasas for gross dereliction of duty and other acts of commission or omission that may have led to or aggravated the shooting incident last Monday in the disputed 446-hectare hacienda in Barangay Robles, La Castellana.
Two farmer-beneficiaries—Alejandro Garcesa, 70, and Ely Tupas, 51—were killed and six others were wounded after being fired upon at around 10 a.m. by three blue guards of the hacienda. The guards have not been arrested.
The farmer-beneficiaries said the shooting was unprovoked, contrary to an earlier claim by La Castellana Police Chief Regidor Alvarado that a heated argument ensued between the guards and the farmers.
“There was no heated argument. We went to Padasas at around 9:30 a.m. to tell him that we are going to enter our land and work. There were no security guards present,” said Florenda Hilario, 48, a farmer-beneficiary.
Angeles said they will also follow up with Camp Crame the complaint they filed against Merced in 2004 in connection with the death of 60-year-old Teresa Mameng in Hacienda Conchita Villanueva, Barangay Sag-ang, La Castellana.
Angeles said that at that time Merced was personally ordered by then PNP Director General Edgardo Aglipay to send in RMG troops to the hacienda after the farmers reported that followers of former landowner Mario Villanueva were planning an attack.
However, Merced did not send in any troops, and at around midnight of September 3, armed men came and strafed the houses of the farmer-beneficiaries.
Mameng was found dead the next morning in the corn field near her house, with a bullet wound on her chest.
In the case of Padasas, Angeles said that the PRMG detachment commander clearly neglected his duty to maintain peace and prevent occurrence of violence.
“They were stationed in the hacienda precisely to prevent any untoward incident, under whatever circumstances. Padasas not only failed to do that, he also initially refused to heed the farmers’ call for help,” said Angeles.
Elidylin Paclibar, 54, said that when the shooting occurred and two of their companions were hit, she and several women farmers went to Padasas to ask for help.
“I asked him, ‘Aren’t you going to do something? Two of our companions are already down,’” Paclibar said she told Padasas.
However, Padasas reportedly said, “What can we do? We are not your security guards,” to which Paclibar retorted, “Then why are you here?”
She said Padasas and the other policemen were merely laughing, prompting her companions to swear angrily at the policemen.
Paclibar said that when the Philippine Army contingent arrived at around 11:30 and fired warning shots to stop the security guards from shooting, it was only then that Padasas made a move to intervene.
TFM counsel Rudy Gabasan of the Ateneo de Manila University-based Saligan lawyers group said they will file appropriate complaints before the Office of the Ombudsman and the National Police Commission.
Gabasan said they are gathering and evaluating testimonies from witnesses to build cases against the RMG police officers.
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