In my previous column where I tackled the 18 March lumad and peasant barricade in front of the EastMinCom of the AFP in Panacan, Davao City, I said that in addition to sympathy and charity, what the protesting farmers and lumad also needed was that the public understand the political roots and implications of their mass action.
The government already knew about El Niño as early as last year, which they predicted to be the longest in the past 65 years. In fact, the government declared some provinces of Mindanao under the state of calamity.
While the farmers’ demands were unquestionably just, the powers-that-be have in the instant answered them with astonishing indifference.
Under the leadership of the Regional Party Committee of the Communist Party of the Philippines, all the NPA units in the region continue to show its mettle as the true army of the people by waging a protracted people’s war, gathering more and more strength from tactical offensives, agrarian revolution and base building.
Two years ago, when the two parties signed the Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro, we declared together, with courage and conviction, that a new dawn has come.