Jaime Tadeo


Jaime "Ka Jimmy" San Luis Tadeo was a Filipino peasant activist and organic farmer.

Biography

Tadeo was born in Bocaue, Bulacan. He obtained a bachelor's degree in Agriculture from Araneta University in 1960 and worked in various government agencies from 1962 to 1981.
Tadeo was formerly one of the leaders of the militant Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas, formed at the outset of the 1986 People Power Revolution in order to push for agrarian reform, until the peasant movement split into multiple groups in the 1990s. Shortly after the fall of the Marcos dictatorship, Tadeo was appointed to be part of the 1986 Constitutional Commission where he was the sole peasant representative.
In January 1987, Tadeo figured prominently in the demonstrations which led to the Mendiola massacre, a violent dispersal of peasants, workers, and students by state security forces which left 13 dead. According to Tadeo, most of the 13 were part of a "composite team" purposely put to protect him from gunfire.
In 1990, Tadeo was arrested and sentenced to a maximum of 18 years in prison at the National Penitentiary in Muntinlupa for committing estafa, which supporters claim was due to his outspoken criticism of Corazon Aquino's executive order on agrarian reform. Asked about his views on the president, he remarked that she " running the country like her own hacienda," and retorted "I asked Cory Aquino for land for the peasants and she gave me 'Muntinlupa'." Tadeo's sentence was commuted after three years, and he was released on parole on August 6, 1993 after submitting a release application to the Department of Justice's Board of Pardons and Parole. President Fidel V. Ramos stated that Tadeo's release could benefit the national peace and reconciliation program under his administration.
In his later years, Tadeo led Paragos-Pilipinas, a small group of Bulakenyo and Central Luzon farmers. He supported the Genuine Agrarian Reform Bill filed in Congress by Rep. Rafael Mariano, a former KMP colleague, in 2018.

Death and legacy

Tadeo died on March 26, 2023, two days before his 85th birthday.
Scholar James Putzel took the title of his 1992 book, A Captive Land: The Politics of Agrarian Reform in the Philippines on the history of land reform in the Philippines and the United States' role in it, from Tadeo's remark that the Philippines is a "foreign dominated economy," captive to American interests.