Philippines: Farmer Leader Killed
Event- Country
- Philippines
- Initial Date
- Feb 19, 2017
- Event Description
On February 19, 2017, WILERME AGORDE, was stabbed and gunned down in North Cotabato. Ka Wiling is a pastoral worker of the Diocese of Kidapawan, and a project officer of agrarian justice program of NASSA (National Secretariat for Social Action) on "Empowering Farming Communities Through Advocacy on Agrarian Reform, Social Enterprise and Practice of Sustainable Agriculture." Ka Wiling was actively involved in leading the campaign to implement agrarian reform in government school reservation. The 5,000-hectare property is owned by University of Southern Mindanao (USM) but the 1,000-hectare portion was allocated to CFCST (Cotabato Foundation College of Science and Technology). The disputed land had been occupied by the farmers for several decades. Recent development indicates that the farmers are winning in the agrarian campaign. And the killing of Ka Wiling is interpreted by the community as a way to silence the leaders in defending their land rights. We join Bishop Colin Bagaforo and the Diocese of Kidapawan in vehemently condemning the heinous murder of one of our dedicated human rights workers. We demand that justice be served and that impartial investigation be conducted to determine who are behind this atrocious crime
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Man
- Violation
- Killing
- Rights Concerned
- Land rights
- Right to healthy and safe environment
- HRD
- Community-based HRD
- Perpetrator-State
- Suspected state
- Perpetrator-Non-State
- Suspected non-state
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Event Location
Latitude: 7.108334900000012
Longitude: 125.0388164
- Event Location
- Summary for Publications
On 19 February 2017, a farmer group leader advocating for agrarian reform was stabbed and gunned down in North Cotabato