Warlita Jimenez was inside her bedroom when two armed men wearing bonnets forcibly entered their house at around 11:00 p.m. and shot her four times, according to accounts from her family. She died on the spot.

CEBU — Days before Christmas, a 55-year-old woman peasant leader was shot dead in her home late Monday night, December 23, in sitio Makilo, barangay Camansi, Kabankalan City, Negros Occidental.

Warlita Jimenez was inside her bedroom when two armed men wearing bonnets forcibly entered their house at around 11:00 p.m. and shot her four times, according to accounts from her family. She died on the spot.

Jimenez was a local leader of a farmers’ organization and had been active in campaigns for land rights in the area.

Jocel Anecito, daughter of Warlita Jimenez, broke down in her mother’s bedroom after learning the news. “We haven’t even moved on (and) now another life in our family has been taken,” Anecito told 99.7 Brigada Kabankalan.

Jimenez was the wife of Joseph Jimenez, another farmer-leader who was killed on November 30, 2022, after being captured by soldiers of the military’s 15th Infantry Battalion. He was killed alongside Ericson Acosta, a peace consultant of the National Democratic Front (NDF) in Negros.

Following her husband’s death, Jimenez was reportedly subjected to repeated harassment by state forces. Rights groups said she was frequently summoned to barangay offices and pressured to surrender as an alleged member of the New People’s Army (NPA), accusations Jimenez’s family denied.

Targeted killings

Citing the threats, harassment, and red-tagging Warlita Jimenez had faced, Human Rights Advocates Negros (HRAN) alleged that government soldiers may be behind her killing, according to a report by 99.7 Brigada Kabankalan.

In the same report, 15th Infantry Battalion commander Lieutenant Colonel Elmar Salvador denied HRAN’s allegations, saying the military does not target innocent civilians and claiming that the New People’s Army (NPA) was responsible.

Farmers groups debunked the military’s claims.

According to a joint statement by national peasant groups Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP) and Tanggol Magsasaka, both Warlita and Joseph were members of Paghiliusa sang mga Magagmay nga Mangunguma kag Mamumugon sa Brgy. Camansi (PAMMACA), a local farmers association facing a land dispute with the hacienda-owning Sola family.

The groups said the Sola clan has been “…violently ejecting and exploiting peasants in Kabankalan since the 1940s.” The statement also alleged that the clan “…continues to employ goons and coercion against farmers with rightful claims to over 140 hectares of agrarian reform lands in the city.”

The military dismantled PAMMACA after Joseph’s death and began repeatedly harassing and forcing Warlita and other Camansi residents to surrender as members of the NPA. Warlita repeatedly rejected these accusations and sought assistance from the regional office of the Commission on Human Rights (CHR).

Human rights alliance Karapatan said the killing took place amid a pattern of violence targeting peasant leaders and their families in Negros since the implementation of Memorandum Order No. 32 (MO 32). Issued by former president Rodrigo Duterte in 2018, MO 32 placed the island, along with parts of Bicol and Eastern Visayas, under heightened militarization to address what his administration described as “lawless violence” and “acts of terror” in the regions.

Cristina Palabay, Karapatan secretary general, said the attack took place even as families across the country were marking the Christmas season.

“The murder of Warlita Jimenez reflects the climate of fear and violence faced by farming communities in Negros,” Palabay said, citing continued reports of harassment, surveillance, and killings of peasant leaders.

The family of Warlita, together with rights advocates including the September 21 Movement–South Negros (S21M) and Human Rights Advocates in Negros (HRAN), is calling for an immediate and independent investigation into her killing and urging authorities to identify and hold those responsible to account.

“Her death outpaced the snail-paced investigation by the Commission on Human Rights into the killing of her husband. Not content with killing Joseph Jimenez and Ericson Acosta, they have now targeted Warlita Jimenez,” HRAN told 99.7 Brigada Kabankalan. (RVO)

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