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QUEZON CITY, 13 OCTOBER 2009. -Maria Myrna Porcare, a vocal leader of Samahan ng Magkakapitbahay sa Pechayan (SAMASAPE), and her son Jimyr Porcare were shot dead, allegedly by landowner-hired security guards the afternoon of Friday, 9 October 2009, over a disputed piece of property in Pechayan, Brgy. North Fairview, a community near Tullahan River.
According to witnesses, the victim was trying to stop the guards from fencing the area because the latter were already going beyond what was stated in a court order. The 2.4 hectare Pechayan has been home to more than 1,000 informal settler families for about 20 years. The revival of an eviction case against a certain Domingo couple in the Metropolitan Trial Court Branch 38 of Quezon Citysustained the claim of Melecio Lavares over a portion of land in the area. The land owner was able to secure a writ of execution against the Domingos.
However, the guards adamantly continued fencing the entire 2.4 hectares of land, which was beyond the area covered by the court order. Thus, the settlers resisted and Porcare was killed by a shotgun blast in the stomach. Her son came to rescue his mother but he was shot in the thorax and died as well. Carrying shotguns, some 15 security guards carrying shotguns were present at the scene.
The suspects were charged with two counts of homicide with the help of Urban Poor Associates (UPA), a housing rights NGO, and were detained at the Crime Investigation Detection Unit of Camp Karingal on 9 October.
Lawyer Ritche Esponilla, UPA legal counsel, said, “We will never tire ourselves prosecuting the two suspects to make sure that justice will be served to the mother and son who were unlawfully killed for fighting over their shelter rights.”
“We are likewise weighing all legal possibilities if we can file charges against the land claimant, the security agency and even against the sheriff for failing to properly supervise the execution of the issued writ which led to this very unfortunate incident,” he added.
Father Robert Reyes, also known as the “Running Priest,” in a mass this morning emphasized the greatness of the mother and son who died protecting their rights as a citizen of this country. “The mother died protecting her family’s right to housing and as a consequence her son also died protecting his mother’s right to live. They are heroes of urban poor,” he told residents during the homily.
“The rights of the poor diminished all of a sudden because of the government’s negligence to its duty to serve and protect. But we should not lose hope and instead justice should be served to Myrna and Jimyr’s death by continuing our fight for decent housing,” the Catholic priest added
Task Force Anti-Eviction, composed of various people’s organizations and NGOs such as UPA, Community Organizers Multiversity (COM) and Community Organization of the Philippine Enterprise (COPE) Foundation, condemned the killing.
The group urged the government to act “with expediency to resolve this crime and to investigate the conduct of demolitions and evictions, may it involve government or private land.”
Photo by: John Francis Lagman
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