MANILA, Philippines -- Farmers and activists Tuesday marched to commemorate the 1987 “Mendiola Massacre,” and were met by barbed wire and antiriot troops blocking the historic Mendiola (now Don Chino Roces) Bridge leading to Malacañang.

The farmers came from all over Luzon. Most traveled on vehicular convoys, but those from Batangas, Cavite and Laguna came to Manila on foot, leaving their hometowns early last week.

The marchers were greeted by policewomen waving placards bearing such slogans as “Policemen are partners in keeping peace and order,” “Express your sentiments peacefully to ensure national peace” and “Warped minds do not help national interest” -- all in Filipino.

Director Gerry Barias, chief of the National Capital Region Police Office, said it was not only the marchers who had the right to freedom of expression.

“We have to let the people know what’s on the mind of ‘Mamang Pulis,’” Barias said. “We are not the enemy.”

But the marchers were not amused. They booed the placard-carrying policewomen and said they felt insulted by Barias’ “gimmick.”

“General, give us some respect,” Carol Araullo, chair of the Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan) told Barias. “Don’t tell us about respecting rights. That’s psywar ... You are not sincere. You engage in negotiating, but you carry such placards.”

Bayan secretary general Renato Reyes scoffed at Barias’ “cheap antics.”

He said Barias barged into the rally site “blowing his whistle, with his own placards and cheering squad.”

“Barias fancies himself as the ‘Mamang Pulis’ mascot. The farmers did not travel this far to be heckled by an insensitive police official,” Reyes said.

In the end, the Philippine National Police described as “generally peaceful” the mass actions held to mark the 21st anniversary of the march in which 13 persons were killed and 100 others were wounded.

“The mass actions were generally peaceful and we would like to thank our police for making sure there was a peaceful conclusion to the rallies,” said PNP Director General Avelino Razon.

Except for two “isolated incidents” involving supposed infiltrators, “the whole thing was very peaceful,” Barias said.

GARB

The marchers called for the passage of the Genuine Agrarian Reform Bill (GARB) now pending in the House of Representatives as House Bill No. 3059.

The bill was crafted in a national convention of farmers, agrarian reform advocates and academicians organized by the Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP) at the University of the Philippines last October.

HB 3059 was authored principally by Anakpawis party-list Rep. Crispin Beltran and coauthored by other party-list lawmakers -- Satur Ocampo and Teodoro Casiño of Bayan Muna and Liza Maza and Luzviminda Ilagan of Gabriela Women’s Party.

Criticized for being “confiscatory,” the measure seeks to distribute all agricultural and farm land in the country to landless peasants for free.

“GARB reflects the collective striving of the Filipino peasantry. On the occasion of the Mendiola Massacre anniversary and in the name of peasant land rights and the search for truth, justice and class emancipation, we offer this proposed piece of legislation to the martyrs of Mendiola,” said KMP chair Rafael Mariano.

The farmers want the bill to replace the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program, the funding for which expires in midyear. The KMP contends that CARP failed to solve agrarian unrest because many landowners were able to avail themselves of exemptions under the program.

Guessing game

Similar mass actions seeking “genuine agrarian reform” were held in the cities of Iloilo, Cebu and Davao.

The marchers, placed at 3,000 by organizers shortly before noon, left the Department of Agrarian Reform compound in Quezon City early in the morning.

Their moves kept law enforcers guessing.

When they arrived at the Welcome Rotunda marking the boundary between Quezon City and Manila, they unfurled their banners but policemen prevented them from holding a program.

The marchers said they would proceed to Manila because the purpose of the march was to try to go to Mendiola.

They were told to occupy only two southbound lanes of España Boulevard but they ended up occupying all lanes, snarling Manila-bound traffic.

The marchers were joined by their colleagues from other militant groups waiting in front of the University of Santo Tomas.

Policemen who had positioned themselves in front of and behind the marchers thought they would stop to hold a program in front of UST. But this did not happen.

The final surprise was the marchers’ avoidance of the police blockade at Morayta Street, leaving law enforcers thinking that they would proceed to Plaza Miranda in Quiapo, one of the few places in Manila where rallies are allowed.

But the marchers traversed Lerma on the outer lane of Quezon Boulevard and then turned left to Recto Avenue, occupying the street’s westbound lane.

A truck serving as their stage and carrying loudspeakers had to maneuver for a few minutes so it could turn into Recto.

‘Finish line’

On Morayta, Chief Supt. Roberto Rosales of the Manila Police District ordered policemen to proceed to Recto and block the marchers at the corner of Morayta and Recto.

“This will be your finish line; you won’t be allowed further,” he told the march organizers, including KMP’s Mariano, Bayan’s Reyes and Representatives Ocampo, Casiño and Maza.

But after a brief negotiation with Manila Mayor Alfredo Lim, the policemen stepped back and allowed the marchers to get to within two blocks of Mendiola -- the corner of San Sebastian and Recto Streets.

Reyes said Lim’s action earned him the “trust and respect” of the marchers.

“This is good enough for us, although we really wanted to reach Mendiola,” Reyes said. “It’s good that Mayor Lim came. It builds confidence between the city government and the protesters.”

Rosales said the mayor’s presence eased the tension. “There was assurance from the ranks that it would be a peaceful rally,” he said.

Arroyo’s ouster

“Twenty-one years ago, struggling farmers trooped to Mendiola to demand land and justice, but the government security forces peppered them with bullets. And later, the government passed a fake land reform law that further exacerbated the problem of landlessness,” said Mariano, who was among those present at the fateful rally on Mendiola on Jan. 22, 1987.

The KMP leader said the farmers were also seeking President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s ouster because they were sure that she and her allies in Congress, being landowners, would thwart the GARB, and because of her administration’s purported violations of peasant rights, including killings and disappearances and the militarization of rural areas.

Mariano expressed the KMP’s belief that through the struggle for genuine agrarian reform, “the social inequities being experienced by the majority of Filipinos would end and social justice would be achieved.”

“But we have no illusions that this would be an easy fight. We are up against the powers that be and the wealthiest elite in the country, like the Cojuangcos and the Arroyos. But we know that we will succeed. The peasantry, once awakened, is like a tempest that no force can stop,” he said.

Can’t be bribed

The march organizers also denied the law enforcers’ claim that their followers had been paid P500 each to join the mass action or they had been infiltrated by communist rebels.

“The farmers are fighting for their land, and they can’t be bribed to walk for miles,” KMP secretary general Danilo Ramos said.

He said the claim that communists had infiltrated the protesters’ ranks had always been proven false.

“We have always policed our ranks. It is the soldiers and policemen in plainclothes who have always been trying to infiltrate us,” Ramos said.

Two suspected military intelligence operatives were actually apprehended by the marchers and turned over to the police. With reports from Alcuin Papa; Inquirer Visayas and Mindanao