Duterte camp on Kidapawan dispersal: Blood on Aquino’s hands

Presidential candidate Mayor Rodrigo Duterte. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO / GRIG C. MONTEGRANDE

The camp of Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte slammed the Aquino government for the bloody dispersal of protesting farmers in Kidapawan City, North Cotabato on Friday.

“Hungry people demanding food do not deserve to be shot,” said Leoncio Evasco Jr., campaign manager of Duterte.

Evasco said the bloody dispersal, which resulted in the death of at least one farmer and injured 13 others, would not have happened if the government listened to the farmers.

READ: 1 killed, 13 hurt after police open fire in North Cotabato farmer protest

“All these barbaric attacks and needless sacrifices would not have happened if the government and the people running it have responded to the clamor for change when 30 years ago the Filipino people put an end to a dictatorship,” he said.

He said “blood is written all over the hands” of the Cojuangco-Aquino clan.

“First there was the Mendiola massacre, then Hacienda Luisita, then the Mamasapano and now the Kidapawan carnage,” he said.

READ: Solon: ‘Hungry’ Kidapawan farmers just wanted gov’t aid

He said the “blood of enraged and hungered people are soaked in the hands of the landlord class personified by the Aquino-Cojuangco clique of the ruling elite.”

“It all the more becomes more tragic and despicable that the same bloodline that benefited from the ESDA 1986 revolt have soiled their hands with the blood and tears of the Filipino people that allowed them into power,” he said.

President Benigno Aquino III, he said, could not escape the blame and responsibility from the bloody dispersal.

“We call on the Aquino government to immediately order all those involved in the shooting to be disarmed, investigated and dealt with the full might and extent of the law,” Evasco said.

He said that now is the time for the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) to condemn this barbaric act.

“An unarmed, defenseless throng of people asking for food poses no danger. In fact they are in danger. Why, oh why should government resort to this state violence?” he said.

He questioned how police authorities dealt with the protesting peasants.

“Why meet with state violence the clamor for change – a change of the way things and the affairs of the state is run by the government,” he said.

“We cannot blame the people to be angry with their government. This government has been impervious to the suffering of the people,” he added. IDL