Farmer-members of Sama-Sama are enraged with the brutal killing of Rommy. The farmers themselves often receive threats from the armed goons and guards of landgrabber Royal Moluccan.

A farmer fighting against land grabbing and asserting his rights for a parcel of land was brutally killed, stuffed in a drum, and left to rot afar. Only monsters can commit this heinous crime.

Rommy was known in the community as a dutiful and good-humored farmer. Despite being reserved and quiet during peasant association meetings, he realized the importance of asserting and defending their right to the land they till.

Rommy would often go inside the fenced farm lots and harvest his crops for income. In 2018, he joined a local Bungkalan (collective farming) with his fellow farmers.

In October 2019, the SAMA-SAMA farmers’ houses were demolished and burned Royal Moluccan goons to force them to move out the fenced farm lots.

KMP, and SAMA SAMA maintains that the DAR Adjucation Board repeatedly favored Royal Moluccan in its decisions despite DAR issuing a Notice of Coverage for distribution as early as May 15, 2006.

In 2019, Torres got into an altercation with an alias Kaloy, leader of the security guards who mauled an elderly farmer. In 2020, security guards of Royal Mollucan fired shots at Torres after he entered the fenced land to harvest banana and root crops.

(Source LandFoodJustice)