Friday, February 13, 2009

STATEMENT OF CONDEMNATION for the Inhuman and Violent Dispersal of Farmers in Mendiola

STATEMENT OF CONDEMNATION
For the Inhuman and Violent Dispersal of Farmers in Mendiola
on the Eve of February 12


“Defend the weak and the poor.
Maintain the rights of the poor and oppressed.” Psalms 82:3



We, Jose Rodito Angeles, president of Task Force Mapalad (TFM) and Enrique Tayo, chairman of Negros Occidental Federation of Farmers Associations (NOFFA) and National Council Member of Pambansang Ugnayan ng mga Lokal na Organisasyon sa Kanayunan (UNORKA), issue this statement of condemnation on behalf of more than 500 farmers hailing from the provinces of Negros Occidental, Leyte, Southern Leyte and Iloilo.
 
We denounce in the strongest of terms the inhumane and violent dispersal by anti-riot policemen of our ranks last night at the foot of Malacanang in Mendiola.
 
The farmers were on their knees saying rosary when the anti-riot policemen charged. At every blow of whistle from Col. Jimmy Tiu, the policemen would make a step forward and make an audible sound of their shields striking the ground. Seeing that the farmers lay prostrate, looked unfazed and were not moving, the firemen trained water cannons on them, while the anti-riot policemen used truncheons to hit backs and knock heads and metal shields to smash the feet and legs of farmers, rendering them helpless on the ground. The assailants knew no age and gender.
 
The farmers withstood the torment for almost an hour. Several farmers lost consciousness. Their companions who tried to retrieve them were met with greater violence by the anti-riot policemen. Although a few of assailants were seen backing out and breaking down to tears, many of them appeared to indulge in what they were doing.
 
Never have we imagined that President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo would allow this kind of inhumanity and barbarianism among the so-called peace-keeping forces. We all came to Mendiola in hopes that we would get her reply to our letter, which we sent her the other day.

In the said letter, we asked her to: a) re-certify House Bill 4077 and urge Congress to prioritize its immediate passage, b) urge Congress to reconsider Joint Resolution #19, which runs counter to the principles and heart of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) – just distribution of lands to landless tillers through compulsory acquisition, c) direct the Department of Agrarian Reform Secretary Nasser Pangandaman to revoke his Memorandum Circular deferring all landholdings in the pipeline for redistribution, d) make true her promise to subject lands of Arroyo lands in Negros Occidental under CARP, and e) direct the DAR to immediately and swiftly act on all pending cases under its jurisdiction.

We were told that there was already a reply. Eager in anticipation, we remained in our place and waited for that letter of reply to land in our hands. After waiting for more than seven hours, no letter landed in our hands but the steel-like flow of water, wooden truncheons, and fiberglass shields on our heads, faces, torsos, and feet.

Today, we speak before the press and the public nursing our wounds and bearing with our pains, physically and psychologically. In so doing, we cannot help but wonder whether these wounds and pains are the very reply from the President. And those dreaded objects – water cannons, truncheons, and shields – were the media she used to write it. We also wonder whether the faces of the assailants were themselves her face.

This we say to the President: If you think your administration can stop the farmers’ campaign for reforms and social justice through repression and violence, then, you are on the wrong side of history. For history is on our side. Our forefathers made history by resisting repression, by marching to Mendiola. Last night's action is part of history in the making.
 
God is, indeed, also on our side. God is against evil, against oppression of the poor. And truth to tell, we have been awestruck by the significant support we have been gaining from the Church. We draw our inspiration from them as we remember the travails that our forefathers or the previous generation of farmers went through in their fight for land reform.

Church is for the poor. God, in whose image we were created, makes history.

We earnestly appeal to other groups and sectors who love peace based on freedom and justice. Please join us in this campaign for CARP extension with meaningful reforms, all for authentic agrarian reform and rural development towards a progressive Philippines.

March with us. Pray with us. Lobby Malacanang and Congress with us.

This is not only the landless and poor farmers' battle. This is the people's.


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