Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas and Tanggol Magsasaka vehemently condemns the killing of Warlita “Dedeng” Jimenez last December 23, 2025, in Kabankalan City, Negros Occidental, by suspected elements of the 15th Infantry Battalion of the Philippine Army (IBPA). The ruthless murder occurred just a day before Noche Buena, and as the Jimenez family is still recovering from the extrajudicial killing (EJK) of Warlita’s husband in 2022.
Eyewitness relatives reported that Warlita was resting inside their home in Sitio Makilo, Brgy. Camansi, when two men wearing bonnets broke in at around 11 pm. They then heard Warlita scream for help as the attackers went to her room, fired four shots, and quickly fled. Warlita, 55, was found dead soon after.
Warlita was the widow of Joseph Jimenez, who was murdered by the 94th and 47th IBPAs last November 30, 2022, also in Brgy. Camansi, with peace consultant Ericson Acosta. The military initially reported that they arrested Acosta and Jimenez before claiming that two were killed in an “encounter” with the New People’s Army (NPA). Residents in the area, as well as a forensic investigation, have since refuted this.
Warlita and Joseph were farmers and members of Paghiliusa sang mga Magagmay nga Mangunguma kag Mamumugon sa Brgy. Camansi (PAMMACA), a local small-farmer association facing a land dispute with the hacienda-owning Sola family.
After Joseph’s murder, the military dismantled PAMMACA and began repeatedly harassing and forcing Warlita and other Camansi residents to surrender as members of the NPA. Warlita consistently refused and has reached out to the regional office of the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) for assistance.
The Solas have been violently ejecting and exploiting peasants in Kabankalan since the 1940s. To this day, the clan continues to employ goons and coercion against farmers with rightful claims to over 140 hectares of agrarian reform lands in the city.
Some farmers in dispute with the Solas participated in the Peasant Camp in front of the Department of Agrarian Reform’s (DAR) Central Office in Quezon City last October. In the dialog with DAR, agrarian reform beneficiaries from Kabankalan complained that they cannot be installed by local DAR personnel despite already holding award certificates due to the Solas’ obstructions. The Solas are also trying to take advantage of legal loopholes to “retain” vast landholdings.
The life and death of the Jimenez couple highlights the layers upon layers of injustice faced by poor peasant families, especially in Negros. It exposes the utter hollowness of the Marcos Jr regime’s rhetoric on peace, development, and land reform.
Negros remains a bastion of feudalism and fascist terror. Even official figures reveal that at least 82% of farmers in Negros do not fully own the land they till, as less than 1% of owners control more than 30% of the island’s farm area. Meanwhile, farmworkers are paid as low as P60 for a day’s work.
When peasants protest these conditions, they are met with repression, red-tagging, and violence both from landlords’ goons and state forces. At least 51 farmers have been killed extrajudicially in Negros since July 2022. These are the very conditions that generate social unrest and compel peasant resistance in its varied forms.
updates from the peasant movement of the Philippines 