TAGUM CITY — The peasant group Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP) demanded swift delivery of “justice” to the farmers who were killed by anti-riot police after a brutal dispersal of protesting farmers in Kidapawan City.
KMP’s statement came as they joined the Global Day of Protest on Friday, April 8 with over 400 farmers gathered inside the compound of Spottswood United Methodist Mission Center to honor the victims of what they described as “Kidapawan Massacre.”
In a simple ceremony, farmers offered flowers and lit candles to honor their colleagues. Aside from demanding justice, the peasant group also pressed the government for the release of rice subsidy as a form of assistance in the wake of the intense and long dry spell that hit Mindanao.
“Nothing has changed. Government aid is still to be given. There are no signs that the drought will disappear soon. If that and government neglect pushes us to hunger again, we’ll take it to the streets once more,” Lito Flores, KMP chairperson in North Cotabato said in a statement.
“Our question remains: Where are the calamity funds?” Flores asked. He also called for “accountability and compensation”, especially for the farmers who were killed and injured.
Flores pointed out that aside from North Cotabato governor Emmylou Taliño Mendoza and Police Superintendent Alexander Tagum, “President Aquino, Department of Agriculture Secretary Proceso Alcala, and PNP Chief Director General Ricardo Marquez” should likewise be held accountable.
“It’s not just one or two persons. It’s the entire government who should be responsible,” Flores stressed. “We will not stop until justice is achieved. The government’s fascist response only nourished discontent against them. The death of our comrades only serve to fuel us in our struggle, that no other peasant clamoring for his rights will be treated like an irrelevant life.”
“It’s painful to scoop and chew rice when you know it had to be paid for by your fellow farmer’s life, and justice still has to be given, for him and for those who continued to live,” he said.
Meanwhile, the Moro human rights group Suara Bangsamoro descirbed the incidennt “a clear case of “state fascism.”
In a statement on Friday, April 8, Jerome Succor Aba, the group spokesperson decried the violent dispersal as “bloody massacre” and emphasized that protesting farmers would only stop the protest unless and until the local government will heed their demands of rice subsidy.
“The farmer-survivors of drought were only demanding for their right to survival. They were asking for 15,000 sacks of rice for sustenance but the government answered them with violence,” Aba said.
“They just want food to survive the drought but the government gave them bullets instead,” Aba said, adding that “the incident is a clear manifestation of how the state addresses the people seeking for their rights.”
According to Aba, farmers were from far-flung communities and often times services of the government barely reach their communities.” Social services often do not reach them. That is why they went to the city so that the local government and the people would know that they badly need help.”
Aba noted that although the local government will distribute rice through their respective barangays, but the farmers were told the same promise in the past and went home with nothing. ” The farmers have learned from the empty promises of the provincial local government unit.”
“Why is it so hard for the local government to provide rice, but easy on commanding the police to shoot us while we are in the picket line?” Aba asked. (davaotoday.com)
