One of the casualties in the violent dispersal of farmers in Kidapawan City. PHOTO CONTRIBUTED BY KILUSANG MAGBUBUKID NG PILIPINAS
A “massacre of farmers” was how a Gabriela representative described the violent dispersal of picketing peasants at the Kidapawan National Highway in North Cotabato.
Bai Ali Indayla of Gabriela Mindanao told INQUIRER.net in a phone interview that at least one was killed and several farmers were injured after the violent dispersal.
READ: 1 killed, 13 hurt after police open fire in North Cotabato farmer protest
Indayla, who was at the scene, said police forcibly broke the line of around 6,000 picketing farmers at the Kidapawan National Highway past 10 a.m.
Indayla said she tried to negotiate with the police, who were armed with shields and truncheons, but they refused to listen. She said that out of nowhere, gunshots were heard.
Indayla said Sheena Duazo of Bayan-Mindanao was brought to the emergency room in a nearby hospital after she was hit by a “big stone” in the head.
She said the thousands of farmers were hiding inside the Methodist Church in Kidpawan City as police authorities were “still in control” of the violent dispersal.
Meanwhile, militant groups condemned the violent dispersal by police forces.
Bayan Muna Partylist representatives Carlos Isagani Zarate and Neri Colmenares “condemned to the highest degree” the bloody dispersal of protesting peasants.
“We are enraged by this violence committed against the protesting peasants and lumads. While officials running for office now spend public funds to promote their self-interests, this is what they do to our peasants who merely assert peacefully their right to be given assistance immediately. Bayan Muna condemns this police brutality to the highest degree,” Zarate said in a statement.
READ: Solon: ‘Hungry’ Kidapawan farmers just wanted gov’t aid
He said justice must be served to the “hapless” farmers.
Both Colmenares and Zarate likened the violent dispersal to the Mendiola Massacre in 1987.
“Sasabihin nila they are pro-farmers at tutulungan nila ang mga magsasaka pero sa halip na bigyan ng bigas at pagkain ay pinagbabaril. Anong klaseng gobyerno ito? Sinasagot ang kalamidad ng mas madugong kalamidad. Salot!” he said.
(They claim they are pro-farmers and that they would help our farmers, but instead of giving them rice and food, they shot at them. What kind of government is this? They are responding to a calamity with an even bloodier tragedy. What a plague!)
Zarate noted that the Mendiola Massacre and the bloody dispersal of peasants in Kidapawan City both happened under the administration of an Aquino.
“This marks another bloody page our country’s failed democracy. This is resonant of Mendiola Massacre and Hacienda Luisita Massacre, both of which happened under the respective presidencies of the Aquinos. True to form, the haciendero Aquino administrations of the past and the present are accumulating grievous sins against the peasantry,” he said.
“Hunger knows no politics and it should be addressed in a humanitarian manner not by brute force or violence,” he added. IDL