APCHRP Condemns Arrest of Casile Peasants and Ongoing Land Grabbing in Laguna
The Asia Pacific Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines (APCHRP) vehemently condemns the arrest of 21 peasants and residents in Sitio Veinte-Veinte Cuatro, Barangay Casile, Cabuyao, in the Southern Tagalog province of Laguna. This unjust action took place on February 7 at around 11:00 PM, when guards of the Laguna Estates Development Corporation (LEDC) – owned by the Yulo landlord clan – together with armed personnel from Emirate Security Services, violently disrupted a peaceful encampment of peasants in Casile. They were released on February 9 with the help of KARAPATAN ST.
The Coalition likewise condemns the Philippine National Police for its complicity in these actions, effectively acting as accomplices to the abuses committed by these private armed groups and for filing charges of “squatting” and trespassing against the affected residents. These acts demonstrate how landlords in the Philippines continue to rely on state forces to criminalize peasant farmers who are asserting their right to land and defending their livelihoods.
Additionally, among those arrested were individuals with serious health conditions, including one person with diabetes and another with a mental health concern, as well as three women. After 48 hours, they were released, and the cases against them were dismissed while they were in detention.
The Yulo clan plans to construct an extension of the Cavite-Laguna Expressway (CALAX), along with condominiums and gated communities, on lands currently occupied and cultivated by peasants – projects that have drawn strong opposition from farmers and residents. The family’s interests in the area date back to the 1970s, when they first built a residence in Casile, followed by successive demolitions over the years. In 2024, the Yulo-owned Sta. Rosa Realty Development Corporation (SRRDC) illegally fenced off 24 hectares of peasant land in Casile. Since 2020, residents have faced ongoing eviction threats, and in 2021, armed groups reportedly burned homes in the community.
This is not a new experience for peasants who continue to be forcibly displaced and dispossessed of land for the benefit of powerful landlords. The Philippine government itself has become complicit in this widespread land grabbing of farms long cultivated by rural communities. The Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) has failed to genuinely distribute land to farmers and has instead been used as a legal mechanism that circumvents their long-standing demands.
APCHRP supports the call for genuine agrarian reform as a foundation for achieving national industrialization. The attacks on farmers and the seizure of their land must stop. The Coalition also calls on human rights organizations across the Asia-Pacific to further expose and oppose the systematic injustices against peasant communities in the Philippines.
