The Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP) on Thursday denounced the continued harassment against farmers over the land dispute in Hacienda Yulo in Calamba, Laguna. 

Farmers have had run-ins with armed private guards, the latest of which were two separate incidents that happened at the start of the year.

KMP said that farmer-resident Jojo De Leon was a victim of violence after his home at Sitio Buntog was attacked by 30 armed men in Jan. 9.

The group narrated that three men pointed guns at de Leon while the others wrecked the walls and windows of his house. It also reported some of the men fired at other residents who were at the scene, wounding four. 

Three days before the incident, the house of resident Mario Mangubat was also destroyed by the same group of men.

Sitio Buntog is part of the 7,100-hectare Hacienda Yulo sugar estate in Laguna. It spans the cities of Calamba, Cabuyao, and Santa Rosa. 

Residents have been asserting their rights to their ancestral lands in the face of their eviction to make way for residential housing.

KMP noted most of these residents were “direct descendants of farmers who began working on the land in 1910.”

“Land grabbers have callously taken advantage of the pandemic and economic crisis to forcibly and illegally evict the farmers,” said KMP chair Danilo Ramos in a statement. “The brazen violence and barbarity of the private armed goons are totally reprehensible.”

According to KMP, there have been at least five attacks by the armed men against the Hacienda Yulo farmers amid the coronavirus pandemic. 

In July last year, the private guards attempted to evict the residents, followed by two more violent incidents the next month.

Residents in nearby areas like Sitio Matang Tubig also experienced threats of violence from the armed men who they said burned three houses in August.