CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY --The leader of the Sumilao Farmers, who walked 1,700 kilometers from Bukidnon to Manila in 2007, was shot dead before midnight Friday. Ka Rene Penas, 51, a barangay kagawad of San Vicente, Sumilao, Bukidnon, was on a motorcycle with two other farmers on their way home when they were shot by still unknown assailants.
Ka Rene was hit in the left chest while his companions identified as Eliezer Peñas and Samson Dollete were also injured in the shooting. Police reports said that Ka Rene tried to crawl away from the ambush but was shot again.
“We demand justice for his death,” an outraged lawyer Normie Batula, managing director of BALAOD Mindanaw, a non-government organization which helped the Sumilao Farmers, said. “We condemn in the strongest terms this cowardly killing and death of Ka Rene,” said Myrna Aboniawan-Siose of the Archdiocese of Cagayan de Oro. According to Batula, Ka Rene was “a great farmer leader who aggressively push forward the CARPER and the other land campaigns.”
Sergio “Kaka LH” Dacup, a paralegal of BALAOD Mindanaw, said they have already sent two lawyers to Sumilao to conduct their own investigation.
The Philippine Agrarian Reform Foundation for National Development (PARFUND), a non-government organization helping farmers, also condemned the killing of Ka Rene. PARFUND Executive Director Butch Olano said he is sending two staff to Sumilao to help the family of Ka Rene.
The Archdiocese of Cagayan de Oro also called for a meeting with key leaders yesterday at the Bishop’s House to discuss and find legal remedies to the brutal killing of Ka Rene. Ka Rene is survived by wife Evangeline, 55; and their children Noland, 27; Wopsyjenn, 26; Jerald, 24; and Realynme, 16. Ka Rene, according to Aboniawan-Siose, led the Sumilao Farmers and PAKISAMA Farmers in the famous walk from Bukidnon to Manila in October 2007. Last March, farmer-members of the Pambansang Kilusan ng mga Samahang Magsasaka (PAKISAMA) elected him the group’s national vice president. He also led many campaigns to help enact CARPER or CARP Extension with Reform.
He was also one of the pioneers of the Mapalad Hunger Strike in 1997, and one of the leaders of the community organizers of the 444-kilometer walk of Banassi farmers in Ula, Camarines Sur. His last text message to his son was on Wednesday night when the Lower House passed CARPER. It read: “Panalo Tayo!” Unconfirmed reports pointed to land dispute as the reason Ka Rene was killed.
But Pastor Toto Baconga of the United Church of Christ of the Philippines (UCCP) said “why only now?”
“Labon sa una nga init pa kaayo wala jud sila hilabti,” he said. Reports said Ka Rene was working on another land claim in Sumilao, Bukidnon at the time of his killing. (Bong D. Fabe)
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