Luisita union leaders insist there were ‘snipers’ in violent dispersal
News HACIENDA LUISITA — The respective presidents of the two labor unions here that continue to lockup Luzon’s biggest sugar mill maintained that there were “snipers” during the Nov. 16 dispersal that several people dead and more than a hundred others injured due to gunshot wounds.

This, even as Ricardo Ramos and Rene Galang, respective presidents of the Central Azucarera de Tarlac Labor Union (CATLU) and the United Luisita Workers’ Union (ULWU), have expressed fears that the “baseless conjectures” by Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita and the police probe panel that there were communist rebels among the rallyists and that the first bursts of gunfire came from the demonstrators during the incident may lead to another violent attack on their picketline here.

Ramos noted that, up to now, the police-led “Task Force Luisita,” which Director General Edgardo Aglipay created to investigate the incident, has been ignoring accounts that snipers shot at the rallyists.

This same allegation was earlier confirmed by Lt. Col. Preme Monta, spokesman for the Armed Forces’ Northern Luzon Command (Nolcom).

Monta, who said he was positioned beside the ambulances at the rear of the anti-riot force that was surging forward to dismantle the picketline at the CAT refinery’s Gate 1, then said over a telephone interview that he saw “gunfire flashes” coming from at least four trucks loaded with sugarcane that were parked nearby.

When one of the two V-150 armored personnel carriers rushed to the trucks, Monta said he saw several men suddenly scamper away, even as recovered from there were an M-16 rifle, a carbine and a cal. 38 pistol.

But Galang said that when the police presented the supposedly recovered firearms before the media, he noted that the authorities were insinuating that these were taken from the rallyists’ positions.

Already, “Task Force Luisita” head, Deputy Director General Reynaldo Velasco, has claimed that one of those slain during the dispersal, 20-year-old Jhaivie Basilio, of Barangay Mapalacsiao here, was included in the police “order of battle” for allegedly being a New People’s Army (NPA) rebel.

But Ramos, who is the concurrent village chief of Barangay Mapalacsiao, belied this, saying that the victim was a “common youngster.”

Both union leaders also confirmed Monta’s observation about the gunfires coming from the nearby parked trucks, but they added there were also shots being fired from the top of the sugar mill’s reservoir, “and from the soldiers near the entrance of Gate 1.”

Galang observed that it was unlikely for NPA rebels to take firing positions at the trucks, as he pointed out that the area was then already under the control of the anti-riot force, and that the location of the reservoir was from where some soldiers and policemen emerged when the picketline was already dismantled.

It was around 3 p.m. when the dispersal operation commenced, with the anti-riot contingent pounding the rallyists with tear gas canisters and water cannons.

Galang said that video footages by ABS-CBN, whose cameraman, Paul Viray, was hit by a rock coming from the policemen’s position, showed that the strikers only used stones, slingshots and Molotov cocktail bombs in fighting back.

It was after about 40 minutes, when government elements thrice failed to drive away the rallyists, when a volley of bullets rained on the picketline, both union leaders said.

Galang said that the gunfires lasted for about 10 minutes.

“Witnesses saw soldiers and policemen going after and shooting protesters into the cane fields,” said Ramos.

He added that they have learned from some staffers of the St. Martin de Porres Hospital here that soldiers “placed guns” beside the bodies of three protesters who succumbed to gunshot wounds.

According to Ramos, claims by the Cojuangco family and government authorities that the firing started from the ranks of the rallyists and that they were infiltrated by rebel elements are “likely meant to deceive the public and escape from criminal accountability.”

“Not a single witness or video shot has been presented to prove that anybody aside from the soldiers and the police were armed during the massacre,” added Ramos.

MISSING BODIES?

Meanwhile, concern has been raised by human rights advocates over the purported missing bodies of seven other victims of the dispersal. By accounts of both the group Karapatan and mediamen in the province, at least 14 people, including two infants, were said to have died in the incident.

So far, only seven slain protesters whose bodies were recovered by their relatives have been identified. They were Jhaivie Basilio of Barangay Mapalacsiao; Adriano Caballero, Jessie Valdez and Juancho Sanchez, all of Barangay Balete.

Jesus Lasa, Barangay Parang; John David, Barangay Cutcut 2nd, and Jaime Pastidio, Barangay Motrico.

All of the said villages are among the 10 barangays covered by this sprawling plantation in Tarlac City, and the towns of Concepcion and La Paz.

The others who also reportedly died due to gunshot wounds were one Boy Versola, a Neng Manalo and another man surnamed Sosa.

Two other victims were said to be from the Visayas who worked as seasonal “sacadas” (sugarcane cutters) here, one of whom was the father of one of the two infants who died of asphyxiation due to tear gas.

According to Galang, seasonal sacadas here mostly come from the Visayas and Mindanao. They are not members of the ULWU, which represents the more than 5,000 land reform beneficiaries here under the stock distribution scheme of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP).

The exact number of sacadas here could not be determined, but they can be found living in makeshift shanties near the refinery in barangays Central and Mapalacsiao.

Notably, of the exactly 111 people whom the police rounded up and detained at Camp Gen. Francisco Makabulos after the dispersal, majority of them were found to be of Visayan origin, while the others were “pahinantes,” or drivers of the trucks of sugarcane planters from elsewhere in Central and Northern Luzon who have been bringing their harvests here for this year’s milling season.

According to Galang, when the picketline was then taken over by the police and soldiers, the main bulk of the protesters retreated to Barangay Balete, leaving elements of the anti-riot force rounding up mostly the sacadas and truck drivers who were then merely watching the clash from a distance.

Meanwhile, protest leaders here and the victims’ relatives have decided on Friday night to simultaneously bury the seven victims on Tuesday, as they will then mark the first week of what they now call the “Hacienda Luisita Massacre.”

Posted on Saturday, November 20 @ 14:07:48 HKT