North Cotabato governor:  Police made call to disperse farmers in Kidapawan City

DAVAO CITY – North Cotabato Governor Emmylou Taliño-Mendoza has denied ordering the police to disperse the protesting farmers demanding for food aid in Kidapawan City on April 1.

Mendoza, during the public hearing of the Senate committee on human rights here, Thursday, said the decision to clear the highway was made by the police.

Two farmers were killed while at least 100, including policemen, were wounded in the dispersal of the farmers who barricaded a national highway in Kidapawan City.

Police claimed that the first act of violence came from the farmers’ side when cops came to “rescue” children who were put in the barricade. Farmers said the police first employed violence and they only hit back to defend themselves.

The farmers, whose rice fields have been devastated by the drought, asked that government give them rice subsidy as their families were on the brink of starvation.  SFM