The Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP) on Tuesday said that there were 81 farmers, peasant leaders and land reform advocates out of the 88 victims of “politically-motivated extrajudicial killings (EJKs)” under the Duterte administration.
“The peasant victims of extrajudicial killings under the Duterte administration are not mere statistics. They were fathers, mothers and they had families,” said KMP chair Danilo Ramos in a media forum in Quezon City.
Ramos said the killings were usually done “execution-style” either by masked assassins, security guards of landlords or paramilitary groups.
“They were hardworking individuals who were killed because of their staunch upholding of their right to the land,” Ramos said of the victims.
The group earlier said that the farmer-activist killings were occurring at a rate of at least one every two days.
In the same forum, farmers and fisherfolk groups belied claims by the government that the recent dip in Duterte’s satisfaction and trust rating based on the latest Social Weather Stations survey was just an expected part of the “political cycle.”
According to the fisherfolk group Pambansang Lakas ng Kilusang Mamamalakaya ng Pilipinas (Pamalakaya), Duterte “neglected [to fulfill] his promises” to basic sectors.
“Our fishing waters are being converted into money-making ventures of the private sector,” said Pamalakaya chair Fernando Hicap.
“There is no genuine land reform under the Duterte regime. Land monopoly persists and vast tracts of lands remain in the control of a few landed families,” Ramos pointed out.
The peasant organizations will be holding protest actions starting on Oct. 16 “to demand genuine land reform, a stop to political and extrajudicial killings, the lifting of martial law and an end to Duterte’s tyrannical rule.”