Karapatan condemned the recent killing of peasant leaders Julius Broce Barellano and Arnel Penaso, as well as the recent illegal arrest and detention of peasant organizer Pedro Lumantas, saying these rights violations further demonstrate “the Duterte regime’s contempt for the majority of poor peasants in the country.”
On June 27, 2018, Barellano, 36, Chairperson of the Hacienda Medina Farmworkers’ Association, an affiliate of the National Federation of Sugar Workers (NFSW) in San Carlos City, Negros Occidental, was shot by an unnamed assailant at around 8:30 in the morning. The victim was about to enter their family’s house when the assailant onboard a motorcycle shot him in the foot and chest. He was rushed to the San Carlos City Hospital, but he did not survive.
