=~=-=··~=- • • • • • - ·-- =···-==~~,~~<====~ -· rl-._,11=-= = - - -- -~-~---·~·--~------~ Repression and criminalization of movements protecting the rights of people working in rural areas Expropriation of land, forced evictions and displacement Absence of agrarian reform and rural development policies, including irrigation and seeds Lack of a minimum wage and social protection Gender discrimination The recent concluding observation87 issued by the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights urges the Philippines to take effective measures to address the challenges facing small-scale fishers and landless farmers to secure their livelihoods. The Committee recommends that the Philippines take all measures necessary to delineate municipal waters and coastal zoning and to improve the production of fishers guided by the Voluntary Guidelines for Securing Sustainable Smallscale Fisheries in the Context of Food Security and Poverty Eradication. It also recommends that the State Party take measures necessary to stop land-grabbing; and to facilitate the distribution of land to landless farmers, including through further extending the agrarian reform process launched with the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Law of 1988, and ensure that women are not discriminated in land distribution. We now examine the reports in the CHRP database on cases involving agricultural workers and indigenous cultural communities as victims. Data show that the most number of cases involving agricultural workers and indigenous peoples are concentrated in Mindanao, particularly in the Zamboanga Peninsula (Region IX) and Caraga (Region XIII), respectively. The complaints are mostly about murder, harassment, and deprivation of property. The complaints correspond to violations of the basic rights to life, liberty, property, and security of person. The data corroborate the vulnerability of agricultural workers and indigenous communities as pointed out in other sources. Table 9 and 10 below illustrate thus: Table 9. Human rights violations by case type involving agricultural workers as victims (January 1, 2009- October 24, 2016) per regional reports Region I 1- Ilocos Number of Top HRV Case 'Ifpes Filed (with Remarks/Rank of Region number of cases) in terms of number of Cases (Jan. 1, 2009cases (1st- 14th) Oct. 24, 2016) 9 • • • • 2-Cagayan 57 ~- 44 -- Central Luzon • • Maltreatment - 2 Abuse of authority - 1 Enforced disappearance - 1 Extortion - 1 Threats -1 Murder-12 • Arbitrary arrest - 7 • Acts unbecoming of a public official - 5 • Arbitrary deprivation of property- 5 • Threats -4 • Physical injuries - 4 (Not specified - 13) • • Murder-7 Torture- 3 14th (Tie) 8th 11th 87 Committee on ESCR (October 7, 2016) Concluding Observations on the Combined Fifth and Sixth Periodic Reports of the Philippines (E/C.l2/PHL/C0/5-6) 42