National Statement of Canadian Solidarity Groups for the Philippines

A STATEMENT AND APPEAL FOR MAMBURAO SIX

March 13, 2006

As Canadian solidarity groups for the Philippines, we condemn the conviction and death sentence handed down by the Quezon City Regional Trial Court last March 1,  2006 on the case of the six farmers from the town of Mamburao, Mindoro Occidental province. Collectively known as the Mamburao Six, these farmers are wrongfully accused of killing the two sons of Mamburao landlord and former Congressman Ricardo Quintos in December 1997.

After eight years of legal battle, MANUELITO MATRICIO, RUBEN BALAGUER, GELITO BAUTISTA, EDUARDO HERMOSO, MARIO TOBIAS and JOSE UNGSOD were transferred to the Death Row at the National Bilibid Prison last March 1, 2006.

Matricio was a national council member of the militant peasant group Kilusan ng Magsasakang Pilipino (KMP) and the five others were members of the peasant group in their community. Eduardo Hermoso was arrested in December 1997 without warrant by agents of the National Bureau of Investigation, brought to and detained at the residence of Congressman Quintos  (instead of being turned over to the Philippine National Police (PNP)) where he was tortured into signing a prepared statement. This statement extracted by duress and torture led to the arrest of the rest of the Mamburao Six in 1998.

The Wheels of Justice Grind Very Slowly

In 1998, the Supreme Court transferred the double-murder case against the farmers from Mamburao, Mindoro Occidental to the Quezon City Regional Trial Court. The farmers were then transferred from Mindoro to the Quezon City Jail. In the long legal process, three judges inhibited themselves from this case until after a re-raffle, the case was brought to Judge Teresa Yadao.
 
The Mamburao Six were recommended for release in 2001. The release order was approved by President Gloria Arroyo, Justice Secretary Hernani Perez and the Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process in 2001 as part of the confidence building measure to help restart the peace talks with the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP). Their continued imprisonment was brought up again in another round of peace talks by the NDFP with the Government of the Republic of the Philippines in Oslo, Norway in 2004 and their release promised. But nothing happened.

Judge Yadao chose to ignore this release order and denied the motion for release by the lawyers of the Mamburao Six, release approved by no less than the President herself. Judge Yadao chose to convict the farmers even as the Lucio de Guzman Command of the New People’s Army in Mindoro had announced, as early as 1998, to the press and in radio that they were responsible for the deaths as retribution for the injustices committed by the Quintos against the peasant farmers.

The farmers, their legal counsels and supporters criticize the reliance of the Court on the testimony exacted from Eduardo Hermoso under coercion and torture and without the benefit of counsel, as well as biased testimonies of people employed by or connected to the landlord Quintos.

“Sacrificial Lambs.”

Lawyer Edre Olalia, one of the counsels for the Mamburao Six, said that the farmers—who were locked in a land dispute against the Quintos landlord family—ended up as “sacrificial lambs” in a battle between the Quintoses and the Villarosas.

Former Congressman Jose Villarosa was also sentenced to death, along with the six farmers, for the murder of Paul and Michael Quintos. Villarosa is a well-known political opponent and rival of Quintos. After Villarosa’s arrest in 1998, he posted bail while the six farmers remained in jail.

Ricardo Quintos, father of Paul and Michael, had accused Villarosa of masterminding the killings of his sons, and claimed the murders were politically motivated. Villarosa denied the accusation and said that the murders could have stemmed from a land dispute which displaced farmers from the 600 plus-hectare Golden Country Farms, Inc. that Michael Quintos managed.

Quintos lost a congressional seat to Villarosa in the 1992 and 1995 elections. In 2001, Villarosa defeated Quintos in the gubernatorial race. Quintos served as congressman for 10 months in the 11th Congress after he won in a recount against Villarosa’s wife.

"Yes, we've been caught between two giant stones hitting one another. The Quintos and the Villarosa families have been bitter political rivals and somehow we got sucked into their quarrel," Matricio said. “Ricardo Quintos maintains that we are in the employ of former Congressman Jose Villarosa. But we are not. The only thing that involves us with Villarosa is the way we sought his assistance in having the land we were tilling in Mamburao covered by the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program."

The case of the Mamburao Six is a blatant example of the criminalization of agrarian cases, a clear legal maneuver by landlords to evade land distribution. When the government sequestered 604 hectares of land claimed by Quintos, and distributed it to the farmer beneficiaries in 1990, the landlord Quintos found an excuse to criminalize the righteous and just struggle of the farmers for genuine land reform. He has charged the farmers with illegal squatting and theft of mangoes. In 1997, his armed guards fired indiscriminately at farmers refusing to leave their lands, killing one and injuring others. No one has yet been prosecuted for this crime. Quintos, despite the admission of the NPA on the killing of his two sons, paid private prosecutors to pursue a case of murder against the Mamburao Six, who happen to be leaders and members of the local farmers organizations standing up to him and asserting their rights.

The case of the Mamburao Six farmers illustrates the influence of powerful landlords and the justice system that favors the rich and powerful against the poor and the powerless. "The filing of  fabricated criminal cases, the use of local police, massive militarization and the hiring of goons has been the common tactics employed by landlords in the countrysides to suppress the peasants' right to self-organization and concerted militant struggle," according to the Kilusan ng Magasasakang Pilipino.

The Mamburao Six are political prisoners, not common criminals as the landlord Quintos and courts would like us to believe—and need to be recognized as such. The criminalization of political offenses, one of the tyrannical practices under the Marcos dictatorship and very much practiced under the Arroyo government, unjustly covers up the true political nature of political cases. This contravenes the political offense doctrine upheld by the Supreme Court in the Amado V. Hernandez case (99 Phil 515, 18 July 1956) otherwise known as the Hernandez doctrine.

The families of the Mamburao Six and the peasant group KMP  plan to contest Judge Yadao’s decision before the Court of Appeals and, if need be, the Supreme Court.

We appeal that you write to the following to express your opposition to the death sentence and the continued imprisonment of the Mamburao Six . Please make a specific appeal to RELEASE the farmers whose release has long ago been approved by no less than President Arroyo herself.
We will appreciate it if you can inform us of the action you have taken on this appeal. You may reply at this email address or contact us at: Phone/Fax: 604-215-1905  ? E-mail: bcchrp@kalayaancentre.net

Her Excellency Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo
 Malacañang Palace, Manila, Philippines
 Fax Number: +632 7361010; Landline Number: +632 7355359 / +632 7361076
 E-mail address: corres@op.gov.ph

Secretary Raul Gonzales
Department of Justice
Padre Faura Street, Manila, Philippines
Fax Number: +632 5211614; Landline Number: +632 5238481 to 89
Website: www.dfa.gov.ph; Email Address: soj@doj.gov.ph

Chairperson Purificacion C. Valera- Quisumbing
Commission on Human Rights
SAAC Building, Commonwealth Avenue
UP Complex, Diliman, Quezon City, Philippines
Fax Number: +632 9200102
Telephone Number:  +632 9285655; Email address: drpvq@yahoo.com

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British Columbia Committee for Human Rights in the Philippines (BCCHRP)
Otario Committee for Human Rights in the Philippines (OCHRP)
Philippine Network for Justice and Peace – Toronto (PNJP)
Centre for Philippine Concerns - Montreal
Centre for Philippine Concerns -- Winnipeg