THE Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP) is preparing protest actions, as it commemorates the 30th anniversary of the Mendiola massacre in which 13 farmers died and not a single law enforcer was haled into court.
“This year’s protest action and commemoration of the Mendiola massacre will happen under extraordinary circumstances—farmer leader Rafael Mariano, who led the farmers’ march to Mendiola in 1987, is now the secretary of agrarian reform, and the land problem is among the major agenda of the peace talks between the government and the National Democratic Front of the Philippines,” KMP Chairman Joseph Canlas said.
“After three decades, there’s still no land and no justice for farmers. No one was arrested, convicted and punished for the massacre at Mendiola that killed 13 farmers, namely, Danilo Arjona, Leopoldo Alonzo, Adelfa Aribe, Dionisio Bautista, Roberto Caylao, Vicente Campomanes, Ronilo Dumanico, Dante Evangelio, Angelito Gutierrez, Rodrigo Grampan, Bernabe Laquindanum, Sonny Boy Perez and Roberto Yumul,” Canlas added.
“After the Mendiola massacre, the administration of then-President Cory Aquino enacted the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Law and implemented the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program that failed to distribute land to farmers,” Canlas argued.
KMP and its allied organizations will press Congress to enact a land- reform program that distributes land to farmers for free.
Canlas said KMP supports the Genuine Agrarian Reform Bill, which was filed in Congress 10 years ago.
Farmers will also expose the continuing militarization of farmland and peasant communities, which has resulted in human-rights violations and extrajudicial killings.
Regional peasant campouts and land occupations are also being set up.
“Seven months into the Duterte administration, we have yet to see drastic policies that will address the problem of the landlessness and poverty of our farmers,” Canlas said.
He noted the executive order on the moratorium on land-use conversion is taking too long to be issued.
“Worse, the efforts of Agrarian Reform Secretary Mariano to implement pro-farmer policies are being blocked by Duterte’s economic managers and big landowners, like the Cojuangco-Aquinos of Hacienda Luisita and the Lorenzos of Lapanday,” Canlas added.
“We will highlight that genuine land reform is necessary and imperative to achieve change, and these actions will show strong support to the third round of peace talks between the government and the NDF. We want to see substantial and major results from the negotiations in terms of upholding social and economic reforms,” the KMP leader said.
KMP and its allied land-reform advocates and peasant-based organizations will launch actions at Congress, Camp Aguinaldo and the Department of Agriculture this week.
The culminating activity will be a protest on Mendiola on January 20.