WHERE’S THE RICE? Around 5,000 farmers protest along Davao-Cotabato national highway in Kidapawan City on Wednesday, March 30, 2016 to demand for rice assistance as they suffer the impact of prolonged drought in the province. (Danilda Fusilero/davaotoday.com)
DAVAO CITY, Philippines—The “people’s court” of the National Democratic Front in Southern Mindanao indicted former President Benigno Aquino III, North Cotabato Gov. Emmylou Taliño-Mendoza, Kidapawan City Mayor Joseph Evangelista, North Cotabato Representative Nancy Catamco, for “crimes against humanity” following the death of two farmers during the Kidapawan bloody dispersal of 6, 000 Lumad and farmers in April, last year.
The NDFP in Davao region said that Aquino committed “war crimes and other serious violations of the international humanitarian law and international human rights law” after it found compelling evidence of “gross neglect and apathy and willful acts and/of omissions” for violating the GRP-NDFP 1998 Comprehensive Agreement on Respect for Human Rights and Civil and Political Rights, the 1966 International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights as well as the 1966 International Convention on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, and the Geneva Conventions of 1949.
“The investigation was culled from testimonies of the victims, fact-finding missions, documents and video footages and transcripts of coverage from media organizations who were present at the start of the farmer’s demonstration and barricade until days after the violent dispersal,” Rubi Del Mundo, spokesperson of NDFP in Southern Mindanao, said in a statement.
The NDFP cited the following grounds as basis for its indictment such as the:
- The willful shooting that resulted in multiple violent deaths and serious injuries, the incarceration and the maltreatment of civilians were all deliberate acts of aggression against defenseless civilians and vulnerable sections of the civilian population long considered under IHL as protected persons.
- The premeditated and arbitrary use of superior and overwhelming armed force and military might against defenseless civilians constitute a most severe crime of mass murder ― what ensued was a massacre in broad daylight on a national highway ordered by state officials and implemented by state forces, without compunction or fear of accountability and with extreme prejudice.
- Naked terror persisted after the barricade was fully destroyed and the civilians were subjected to more contemptible attacks.
- The Respondent GPH civilian bureaucrats were criminally liable for gross negligence, and failed to act promptly, if at all, to ease the suffering and ameliorate the livelihood of the people. In particular, Respondent GPH civilian bureaucrats failed to decisively address the immediate and legitimate demands of the hungry and drought-stricken farmers in North Cotabato and adjoining areas.
With this, the communist rebels ordered the immediate arrest of Taliño-Mendoza, Evangelista, Catamco as well as other military and police officials involved in the dispersal incident.
However, the Palace over the weekend, refused to recognize the NDFP’s order.
“We only have one government and one justice system in the Philippines,” Presidential Spokesman Ernesto Abella in a statement said on Sunday. “Only the appropriate body can rule on the issue of the violent dispersal of farmers in Kidapawan.”
“Security measures are in place to guarantee the protection of the former president and other personalities mentioned by the announcement of the National Democratic Front,” he added.
But NDFP maintains that “the indictment described the inutility of the reactionary national and provincial government over the widespread damage caused by the severe drought to the lives and livelihood of the Lumad and farmers.
“It, likewise, underscored that in the face of such devastation, the AFP (Armed Forces of the Philippines) with the consent of the provincial reactionary officials continued to unleash fascist abuse in the countryside, especially in arming and mobilizing the paramilitary Bagani in North Cotabato,” it added.
The NDFP’s declaration was made on the first anniversary of the bloody dispersal of at least 6,000 farmers from Sultan Kudarat, North Cotabato, and Kitaotao in Bukidnon.
On April 1, 2016 both Lumad and farmers blocked the national highway in Kidapawan to demand the release of 15, 000 sacks of rice in the wake of dry spell that hit the province. The supposed peaceful protest turned violent which resulted to the death of two – farmer Darwini Sulang from Arakan town and Enrico Fabiligar from Kidapawan City who was just passing by at the time of the incident – and 34 others seriously injured, including 22 people who sustained gunshot wounds. (davaotoday.com)
