Philippine police say gunmen have killed nine members of a farmers' group who occupied a part of a privately owned sugarcane plantation.
Police say the victims were resting in a hut Saturday night when about 10 gunmen opened fire. At least four farmers survived the attack at the plantation in Sagay city in central Negros Occidental province, which has a history of bloody land feuds.
The National Federation of Sugar Workers condemned the killings of their members, who it said were forced to plant vegetables and root crops to feed their families on land that's covered by the government's land reform program but remained undistributed to poor farmers.
A police investigation is underway.
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