MANILA, Philippines--Farmers fighting for a piece of land in a sprawling hacienda in Laguna will have a crash course on using the Internet Thursday at the launch of an online campaign for the resignation of Agrarian Reform Secretary Nasser Pangandaman Sr. and a revamp in the department's bureaucracy.

The online campaign was inspired partly by the tempest stirred by the blog of Maria Dhel "Bambee" de la Paz, who wrote an account of how Pangandaman's sons beat up her father and teenage brother following an argument involving courtesy on a golf course, June Rodriguez, executive director of the Peace Foundation, said.

"I received a lot of e-mail from a lot of e-groups condemning the incident. Decent people argue but don't hit a 14-year-old boy ... As DAR secretary, he (Pangandaman) has not done anything for the farmers but instead favored reversions in favor of golf courses," Rodriguez told the Philippine Daily Inquirer by phone.

The Peace Foundation has been supporting the cause of the 400 farmers of Hacienda Yulo in Calamba, Laguna and Rodriguez was tasked to create the website calling for the resignation of Pangandaman.

Rodriguez will be bringing a laptop with a wireless internet connction, and by the roadside outside the DAR main office in Quezon Circle, she will teach the farmers how to navigate the Internet for the first time and sign their names on the website as the first ones to call for Pangandaman's resignation

"The online campaign is not just for Pangandaman's resignation but also to defend CARP [the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program] and for a revamp of the DAR bureaucracy. We want to defend, extend, and reform CARP," Rodriguez said.

The proponents of the Pangandaman resignation movement said they do not have someone specific to endorse as the secretary's replacement.

"As long as the person would be pro-farmer. The position is a political appointment. We need someone who will promote the issues and the interest of farmers. That's what has been missing," Rodriguez said.

Rodriguez said the Peace Foundation and the farmers' group UNORKA (Pambansang Ugnayan ng mga Nagsasariling Lokal na Organisasyon sa Kanayunan or the National Coordination of Local Autonomous Rural People’s Organizations), which are spearheading the campaign, hope to "gather as much friends" as possible on Thursday, knowing that most would be busy with their New Year celebrations.

"We'll give it our best effort," Rodriguez said.

The launch of the online campaign will be kicked off by a Mass to be celebrated by "running priest" Fr. Robert Reyes at 11 a.m. Thursday.

Reyes said that Pangandaman should resign his post as Cabinet secretary, not only for the golf course incident, but also "for all his failures as DAR Secretary."

"We will be coming out with a long list of his failures," Reyes told the Inquirer also by phone.

Reyes said he wanted to invite the De la Paz family to attend Thursday’s mass.

Reyes and Rodriguez were those who joined the farmers' march Wednesday morning from Canlubang to Calamba as part of their call for the department to void a reported order exempting 3,256 hectares of the hacienda's 7,100 ha from coverage of the CARP.

Under Pangandaman, Reyes said DAR became the "Department of Agrarian Revision."

"It's because the secretary was known to reverse decisions," Reyes said.

UNORKA spokesperson Vangie Mendoza said that the original Hacienda Yulo includes lands in the Laguna towns of Canlubang, Calamba, Sta. Rosa, Cabuyao, and Binan.

"All 7,100 hectares used to be an azucarera (sugar mill)," Mendoza said.

Parts of it, that have been under CARP, had been converted to three golf courses in recent years, she added.

More than 1,000 farmers are petitioning for their land in three different areas of the hacienda, in Canlubang, Cabuyao, and Sta. Rosa.

Mendoza said that in 2005, 254 ha of Hacienda Yulo were awarded to 59 farmers following a Supreme Court decision.

"The fight for that piece of land began in the 1970s," Mendoza said.