Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP) and Tanggol Magsasaka condemns the 3rd Infantry Division of the Philippine Army (IDPA) for red-tagging peasant leader Lucia Capaducio and the entire peasant organization Pamanggas in a recent media interview.

In an interview with GMA Super Radyo Iloilo last September 15, 2025, Colonel Erwin Lamzon of the 3rd IDPA labelled Pamanggas as a “sectoral front organization” operating in urban areas for armed revolutionary groups. Col. Lamzon described the 66-year old Capaducio, as being “at large” despite admitting that there are no cases filed against her.

These statements, delivered matter-of-factly by Col. Lamzon, constitute red-tagging and thus threaten the life, liberty, and security of not just Nay Lucia but the entire membership and network of Pamanggas. At the same time, it vilifies them as dangerous and untrustworthy, provoking further attacks against them. This is the latest case in an unbroken string of red-tagging and harassment operations by the military against Nay Lucia since at least 2022.

This recent attack is all the more enraging as widespread and deep-rooted corruption in government is being unraveled nationwide. Plunderers in various public posts and their accomplices in private businesses are left unbothered and untouched while rural poor and advocates speaking out against exploitation and oppression are targeted by armed state forces. Attacks against rural poor leaders and organizations, such as Nay Lucia and Pamanggas, are attacks for and in the benefit of land grabbers and corrupt officials.

We demand that the red-tagging and harassment against Nay Lucia and Pamanggas be immediately stopped. Col. Lamzon of the 3rd IDPA should retract his vilifying statements. We urge GMA Super Radyo Iloilo to be more circumspect in the veracity of the messages it amplifies through its platforms. We likewise enjoin the peasantry and the people of Panay, Guimaras, and all of Visayas to continue to stand up in defense of their rights, link up arms, and push back against rights violations and state terror.

Pamanggas or Paghugpong sang mga Mangunguma sa Panay kag Guimaras is a legitimate and legal alliance of peasant organizations representing several hundreds of rural poor from various provinces in Panay and Guimaras. It is chaired by Capaducio who herself is a farmer. A regional chapter of KMP, it assists various farmer, farmworker, and fisherfolk communities in facing land disputes, recovering from disasters, and asserting their various rights. For more than a decade, Nay Lucia has consistently led dialogues between farmers and representatives of different government agencies. She also regularly speaks in school forums, media platforms, and street protests expressing the conditions and plight of the rural poor.

Pamanggas’s role was crucial in the conduct of several local relief and recovery efforts following the devastation caused by Yolanda in 2013. In 2016, Nay Lucia herself was among the convenors in a campaign for the release of the P5,000 financial assistance for Yolanda victims. When the Covid pandemic and militarist lockdowns struck in 2020, Pamanggas launched campaigns for ayuda. In 2023, Nay Lucia led engagements with various provincial and local governments as El Nino hit farmers badly. Most recently, Nay Lucia attended the launching of the Manindigan! Campaign Network in Manila last September 6, 2025.

Nay Lucia is also among the peasant leaders vocal against the Jalaur Megadam project in Iloilo. She has pointed out how it displaces thousands of indigenous rural poor, encroaches upon thousands of hectares of ancestral lands, and is set to destroy the local environment. She has condemned the violence inflicted upon the indigenous Tumandok communities opposing the Megadam, especially the massacre of nine Tumandok leaders by the 12th Infantry Battalion of the Philippine Army last December 30, 2020. #