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MANILA — Several groups are enraged over the violent dispersal of the camp out of farmers Saturday, resulting in the arrest of 42 and injury of 11 others.

Farmers led by Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP, Peasant Movement of the Philippines) and Katipunan ng mga Samahang Magbubukid sa Timog Katagalugan (KASAMA-TK, KMP Southern Tagalog) set up the camp out June 30 when they were barred from entering Malacanang to present their demands to President Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III.

Without warning, men from the engineering office of the Manila City Hall tried to tear down the farmers’ camp-out. About 200 elements of the Manila police armed with shields and truncheons started arresting and chasing the protesters towards Legarda street near the LRT station.

The peasant leaders said that they tried to negotiate and decided to dismantle the camp-out but the police struck them with truncheons and arrested all of those who tried to talk them down.

Those arrested were charged with littering and obstruction of traffic and brought to the Manila Police District headquarters.
The peasant groups sent a letter to Aquino and waited for concrete response. “We continued our camp-out and just on our third day and also of the Aquino presidency, it unleashed its fascist attack on the people and dispersed us mercilessly. Disregard and violence were the apparent response of Noynoy Aquino to our legitimate demands,” said Danilo Ramos, KMP secretary general.

“This is unacceptable under the new government who claims to push change, boasts of being democratic and pro-people. The Aquino government is no different from its predecessor Arroyo regime, implementing same-old fascist tactics to trample on our basic rights,” he added.

The striking farmers came from the more than 7,000-hectare Hacienda Yulo in Canlubang, Calamba, Laguna who are demanding the Aquino administration to distribute the lands. Hacienda Luisita farmworkers, who are also demanding the distribution of the 6,000-hectare sugar estate owned by the family of the President, also joined the camp-out.

acienda Yulo is a vast sugar estate. A huge part is also devoted to coconut production, and in order to evade agrarian reform, the Yulos have placed a number of cattle. The Yulo farmers are now facing threats of eviction and are continuously experiencing different forms of harassment like demolition of their houses, cutting of coconut trees, and militarization.

Ramos said they have asked Aquino to include genuine land reform in his agenda but heard of nothing in his inaugural address.

In a separate statement, Anakpawis Rep. Rafael Mariano said the dispersal of the farmers camp-out is reminiscent of the administration of former President Corazon Cojuangco-Aquino, the late mother of Noynoy Aquino.

“The first victims of state violence under the Noynoy Aquino administration are farmers demanding genuine land reform at the foot of Mendiola Bridge. The same just and legitimate demand issued by farmers massacred in January 1987 at Mendiola Bridge, also under an Aquino administration,” says Mariano.
On January 22, 1987, thirteen farmers lay dead after combined elements of the police and military opened fire against a throng of farmers demanding genuine land reform to the Aquino administration.

Mariano also recalled that when the Hacienda Luisita massacre occurred on November 16, 2004, then Tarlac Rep. Noynoy Aquino has just been elected as Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives.

“With only four days in office, state security forces dispersed a peaceful camp-out by farmers from Hacienda Yulo. The dispersal of the farmers last Saturday appears like a déjà vu of sorts,”

Mariano, also chair of the KMP, said.
Mariano echoed calls by the protesting farmers, now camped at the Caritas Manila, to immediately distribute Hacienda Yulo in Laguna and Hacienda Luisita in Tarlac to farmers and farm workers.

The lawmaker said he is set to file a resolution calling for a probe on the Mendiola dispersal, and on the ongoing land dispute in Hacienda Yulo.

In another statement, the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) called the dispersal “a signal fire of the new Aquino regime against the mass movement of peasants and their continuing clamor for genuine agrarian reform.”
“He has spoken of providing marketing services to farmers, but ignores the more fundamental problem of land monopoly ownership by landlords that has been subjecting millions of peasants to oppression and exploitation for centuries,” the CPP said.

“His [Aquino] callousness to the demands of the peasant masses will only succeed in pushing more and more people to the path of revolutionary armed struggle,” the CPP added. (PinoyPress)