A police manhunt hunt is on for a man shown in a video, which has gone viral on social media, firing his gun at a female agrarian reform beneficiary in Barangay Dos Hemanas, Talisay City, Negros Occidental, Friday morning, Jan. 31.
Lt. Col. Salvador Trono Jr., Talisay police chief, said they are searching for the man in the video who will face charges for violation of the Commission on Elections gun ban, grave threats and illegal discharge of a firearm.
The motive for the incident is a land dispute, Trono said.
The man could not be found in the a addresses given to the police but their operations are ongoing to locate and arrest him, Trono said.
The video shows an angry man fire his gun in the direction of a woman holding up a cellular phone as other agrarian reform beneficiaries shout. He was in the company of five other men, one of whom was also holding a gun.
Four of the women went to the Talisay Police Station on Friday to file a complaint and a manhunt is on for the gunman, Trono said.
The agrarian reform beneficiaries said they were weeding when the armed men arrived.
Negros Occidental Provincial Election Supervisor Ian Lee Ananoria said he also requested the police to investigate the matter for violation of the Comelec gunban.
Lani Factor, Task Force Mapalad deputy national coordinator, said “a ‘goon’, being linked to an influential landlord/lessee in Talisay City, Negros Occidental, aimed a gun against defenseless female peasants” at a sugar plantation in Brgy. Dos Hermanas on Friday morning.
Unfazed at gunpoint, the women held smartphones against the armed men, she said.
The 50-hectare Hacienda San Antonio Dos had been awarded to the agrarian reform beneficiaries in 2001, when the Department of Agrarian Reform issued them their certificates of land ownership award (CLOA), Factor said.
The awardees leased back their land to Paul Chang and want to regain control of their property, she said.
Factor said “leaseholder Chang has no more rights as his lease contract expired and proposals for extension were rejected by the CLOA holders”.
However, a source said Chang claims the agrarian reform beneficiaries sold the property to him and he has a certificate of sale.
This standoff has been ongoing for more than a week now, Factor said.
Task Force Mapalad in a statement delivered to the Joint Committee on Agrarian Reform and Committee on Justice of the House of Representatives Inquiry on Tuesday, January 28, has spoken about this incident and the general trend of harassment of farmers nationwide, Factor said.
Support is needed put a stop to desperate acts of violence, she added.*