The Philippine National Police (PNP) regional office in Ilocos (Region 1) has ordered the Pangasinan Provincial Police Office (PPO) to validate reports that some police officers allegedly harassed a widowed farmer who testified in a Senate probe on the skyrocketing price of onion.

Police Brig. Gen. John Chua, Ilocos Police Regional Office (PRO-1) director, directed the Pangasinan PPO headed by Police Col. Jeff Fanged to look into the claims of Merlita Gallardo, an onion farmer.

Gallardo is the wife of Roger, a fellow onion farmer who allegedly committed suicide after suffering from financial setback he incurred from onion farming in Bayambang, Pangasinan.

“This office is on the process of validating the alleged harassment committed by Bayambang MPS and if the allegations were true, this Office will subject them for corrective measures and such actions by our colleagues will not be tolerated,” Fanged said in a statement on Thursday night, Jan. 19.

Fanged said that investigators coordinated with Gallardo where she told them that their family was “humiliated” for their failure to pay a debt amounting to P500,000. They also accumulated financial loss amounting to P1.7 million which was used as capital for onion farming.

Citing results of Roger’s death certificate, Fanged said that the farmer succumbed to respiratory failure secondary to organophosphate poisoning. Organophosphates are commonly used as insecticides.

According to reports, Senator Imee Marcos urged the PNP, Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG), and the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) to take their “hands off” of the Senate witnesses.

Gallardo appeared before the Senate agriculture, food, and agrarian reform committee last Monday as part of an investigation on the effects of the high price of onion, which included the reported suicide of five onion farmers including her husband.

According to Marcos, the cops went to the house of Gallardo on the orders of DILG and NTF-ELCAC. The senator reportedly said that Gallardo and other onion farmers were fearing for their lives as she asked if the DILG and NTF-ELCAC perceived the farmers as communist rebels.

Meanwhile, Bayambang Mayor Nina Jose-Quiambao denied that there were five farmers who committed suicide in the municipality due to the high price of onion.

In a statement, Jose-Quiambao said that the Bayambang Rural Health Unit and Bayambang MPS have not recorded a single suicide case so far this year.

“Marahil ang tinutukoy sa bali-balita ay ang naitalang kaso ng isang magsasaka na nagpatiwakal noon pang Enero 2021 subalit ito ay hindi dahil sa presyo ng sibuyas, bagkus ay dahil sa pananamantala ng harabas (Perhaps what was referred to in the news was the recorded suicide case of a farmer in January 2021 but it was not related to the price of onion, but because of the harassment of army worms),” Jose-Quiambao said.