300 C. Luzon farmers join commemoration of ‘Mendiola massacre’

CITY OF SAN FERNANDO—More than 300 farmers in Central Luzon left for Mendiola in Manila on Tuesday to join protesters commemorating the so-called Mendiola massacre, which has become the symbol for their quest for land.

The caravan began in Cabanatuan City in Nueva Ecija, where cases of land grabbing, land-use conversion and militarization are “rampant,” said Joseph Canlas, chair of the Alyansa ng Magbubukid sa Gitnang Luzon, an affiliate of the Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas.

“It has been 32 years [after the Mendiola massacre] and we farmers are being killed and many of us are still landless,” Canlas told the Inquirer.

Former Agrarian Reform Secretary Rafael Mariano was a survivor of the shooting rampage on farmers that camped at the then Ministry of Agrarian Reform in Quezon City and marched on Jan. 22, 1987 to Malacanang more than three decades ago. /lzb