Philippines: The right to food and life of 300 petitioning landless tenants are threatened in San Vicente, Bondoc Peninsula, Quezon Province

Land is essential for peasants to feed themselves adequately. In San Vicente (municipality of San Narciso), the landholdings of the influential Uy family are yet to be covered under the national agrarian reform program and distributed to around 300 petitioning landless tenants located in 6 sub-villages. In 1996, soon after several Uy tenants filed petitions for land distribution, the harassment of the tenants by the Uy family began. On February 19, 2008, Deolito Empas, a peasant leader was abducted and later killed by armed men. He is the fifth person who has been murdered in the course of the peasants’ struggle for land in San Narciso. Today, the right to food of these tenants is extremely threatened. Many are forced to hide due to the harassment and their access to land is denied.