Media issue comprehensive reports on mass arrest over Tarlac land dispute

CHEERS TO the media organizations that issued detailed reports on the  June 9 mass arrest of farmers, land reform advocates and journalists in Hacienda Tinang, Concepcion, Tarlac. Reports from Altermidya, Bulatlat, and The Philippine Daily Inquirer provided the context needed in understanding the multi-layered issue which led to the violent arrest of 90 individuals. 

Events leading  prior to the mass arrest

Over eighty individuals of the 90 arrested, dubbed the “Tinang 83,” face charges of illegal assembly, malicious mischief and obstruction of justice after their arrest picked up by police officers responding to a destruction of property complaint from a certain Vernon Villanueva. The arrest came after a collective farming effort or ‘bungkalan’ at Hacienda Tinang, the site of a land dispute involving farmers who were also agrarian reform beneficiaries (ARBs) under the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP), and who were seeking to assert their land ownership. While only 83 were charged, the more than 90 individuals arrested included agrarian reform advocates who joined the farmers at Tinang to show their support, as well as journalists covering the event.

On June 9, the ARBs held the bungkalan after  a dialogue on June 7 with John Laña, Assistant Secretary of the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR). Laña promised in the dialogue the formal installation of the agrarian reform beneficiaries. The formal installation granting the ARBs their land has actually taken years, since they had received their Certificate of Land Ownership Awards (CLOAs) in 1995, and these CLOAs became final and executory through a DAR order in 2019. 

The Villanueva clan and the Tinang Multi-Purpose Cooperative

The three reports connected the mass arrest to the Villanuevas, a local political clan that controls the Tinang Multipurpose Cooperative. The Villanuevas are contesting the ARBs’ claims to the land through the cooperative and its members. However, over 200 of the cooperative’s members have already sold their land rights to the Villanueva family, according to Bulatlat’s report.

Altermidya reported that the complaint which prompted the police response came from Vernon Villanueva, a manager of the cooperative and former barangay captain. The ARBs alleged that to further the Villanueva clan’s claim over the land, Vernon Villanueva hid the decision to award the CLOAs from the beneficiaries when he was barangay captain.

The Inquirer’s report added that Villanueva’s brother, Noel, Concepcion Mayor-elect and outgoing Tarlac Representative, also supports the cooperative. Noel Villanueva claimed that the bungkalan led to the destruction of sugarcane planted by the cooperative. Writing in August 2021 to Luis Meinrado Pangulayan, Agrarian Reform Undersecretary, the mayor-elect insisted that the ARBs’ claims to the land are illegitimate, unlike the cooperative’s. 

More than a mass arrest

Altermidya’s report also featured an agrarian reform beneficiary even before the arrests occurred. It showed Elizabeth Felix participating in the bungkalan during an interview. Felix stressed that after years of hunger, the bungkalan was their only chance to assert their rightful claim to their land and livelihood. Bulatlat noted that Sama-Samang Artista para sa Kilusang Agraryo (SAKA) called the bungkalan a “protest” to address the immediate need for food: “It is a method of guaranteeing a peasant community’s own food security.” Members of SAKA were among those arrested.

After three days in detention, the Tinang 83 posted  PHP1.2 million bail. Various groups had raised the amount through donations. A pre-trial conference and arraignment is set for June 17.

How the three media organizations covered the biggest mass arrest under the Duterte administration showed the importance of providing nuanced coverage when it comes to recent developments in complex issues. The ongoing land dispute between the two groups has lasted decades. As such, it requires the detailed reporting Bulatlat, AlterMidya and the Inquirer provided the public in furtherance of the citizen right to know.