WHY DID ONION FARMER DIE?

INTERIOR and Local Government Secretary Benhur Abalos ordered DILG Pangasinan provincial director Virgilio Sison to ‘take a leave’ for failing to report alleged harassment of the wife of an onion farmer in Bayambang town.

Abalos, in a statement, Tuesday, January 24, said Sison did not inform him of his order to the policemen of Bayambang to investigate and gather reports regarding suicide incidents involving five onion farmers in town.

“Bakit siya gumalaw nang hindi ko alam sa provincial level? I am just awaiting for explanation”, said Abalos in an interview after he ordered Sison’s relief pending the investigation.

The PUNCH made attempts to contact Sison, but to no avail.

Likewise, DILG OIC Regional Director Agnes de Leon refused to be interviewed, but sent a text message: ““Wala pa po kaming nare-receive na order kaya hindi po kami makapag-comment.”

Abalos’s order to relieve Sison was in response to the alleged harassment of Merlita Gallardo, wife of onion farmer Roger Gallardo, 52, who committed suicide in January 2021, who appeared before the Senate committee hearing on Monday, January 16 regarding the plight of onion farmers.

Last Thursday, January 19, President Marcos Jr. ordered the police to stop harassing Gallardo’s wife.

Gallardo said she was visited by the police on eight occasions reportedly asking her to recant her statements made before the Senate committee, using an advisory allegedly signed by Sison seeking more details behind the suicide of the farmers after two years .

Police went to the widow’s and other onion farmers’ houses during wee hours of the night and early morning, allegedly on orders from the DILG and the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC).

Two years of pain

Roger, a resident of Barangay Paragos, ended everything when he reportedly failed to settle his P500,000 debts, and lost P1.7 million in his farm due to the infestation of armyworm or harabas that ruined his crops.

Merlita took up his late husband’s farm and continued to plant onions – hoping to recoup their losses, but also met with bad luck, as 2022 rains damaged her farmlands.

Barking up the wrong tree?

Meanwhile, the Bayambang local government unit clarified that Gallardo’s suicide had nothing to do with increase in onion prices.

In a statement issued on Monday, January 23, Bayambang town mayor Niña Jose-Quiambao said the DILG ordered the local police to investigate the alleged suicide of five farmers, and asserted that no one was harassed, despite Marcos’ claims.

Zyra Orpiano, Municipal Agriculture Officer, confirmed that no farmer have committed suicide due to high onion prices.

The Pangasinan Police Provincial Office Director P/Col. Jeff Fanged admitted that Bayambang PNP acted on the request of Sison to validate reports that five farmers committed suicide due to high onion prices.

“This office is in the process of validating the alleged harassment committed by Bayambang MPS and if the allegations were true, this Office will subject them for corrective measures and such actions by our colleagues will not be not tolerated”, said Fanged in his statement released to the media.

Meanwhile, another statement from the PNP said the entire fiasco was a misunderstanding because the police investigators only asked Gallardo to sign a form to clarify the circumstances of the death of her husband, that it was due to respiratory failure secondary to organophosphate poisoning.

“It was all a misunderstanding”, said PNP Chief General Rodolfo Azurin Jr and ordered Fanged to conduct an investigation to clear the misunderstanding and to reach out to Gallardo to assure her of  her safety. (Ahikam Pasion)

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