The Philippines: Landless tenants suffer harassment and hunger in Bondoc Peninsula, Quezon Province

Bondoc Peninsula is one of the poorest regions of the Philippines. Most of the farmland in this area is in the hands of a few landlord families such as the Uy family in San Vicente. Due to the family’s political influence, the Uy landholdings remained excluded from the national agrarian reform program which became effective in 1988. Since mid 1996, efforts have been made by Uy tenants to file petitions for land distribution.

Shortly after, systematic harassment by armed men employed by the landowner began: the tenants face intimidation, destruction of their property, eviction from their land and physical violence. Four peasant leaders have been killed till today. 7 families are currently denied access to land and more than 300 families are suffering hunger and malnutrition. Recently the goons have forcibly harvested coconuts of three tenants and a house of one tenant was destroyed.