March from DAR (Quezon City) to Mendiola

Photos courtesy of BAYAN Press Information Office

News Statement
January 22, 2008

Reference: Jamie Mapa, NY Committee for Human Rights in the Philippines, email: nychrp@yahoo.com

Continue the Struggle for Genuine Agrarian Reform Under GMA! Justice for the Victims of the Mendiola Massacre of 1987!

On this day 21 years ago, thousands of farmers and peasants from Southern Tagalog and Central Luzon, many of which were walking either barefoot or in sandals, staged a massive march for genuine agrarian reform with a protest and march to the Mendiola Bridge in Manila. The protestors never made it to the Presidential Palace or where they would dialogue with the young Corazon Aquino regime. Instead, they were met with members of the Western Police District, the Integrated National Police, and the Philippine Marines who had opened fire on a protest rally of 10,000 peasants.

After the shooting, Danilo Arjona, Leopoldo Alonzo, Adelfa Aribe, Dionisio Bautista, Roberto Caylao, Vicente Campomanes, Ronilo Dumanico, Dante Evangelio, Angelito Gutierrez, Rodrigo Grampan, Bernabe Laquindanum, Sonny Boy Perez, and Roberto Yumul lay dead. More than 80 others were wounded.

Today, under the regime of Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, there has been no justice for the victims of the event now infamously dubbed the "Mendiola Massacre". In fact, the Arroyo regime, as the regimes before her, have served as massive obstructions to the number one demand of the majority of the Filipino people-- Genuine and Comprehensive Agrarian Reform.

It was under the Arroyo administration back in November 16th, 2004 that saw a repeat of military massacre of unarmed peasants on strike for land and wages with the Hacienda Luisita Massacre. Till this day, both horrific events in Philippine history remain investigated and unresolved under a government and military culture of impunity. The victims of both massacres and their families remain uncompensated for their losses.

The NY Committee for Human Rights in the Philippines completely recognizes that landless peasants make up over 75% of the overall Filipino population. Without land reform, poverty, hunger, and forced displacement will continue to lord of the basic communities in the countryside.

Today, the abduction of 36 year-old agriculturalist Jonas Burgos, a land rights advocate with the group Kilusang Magbubukid Ng Pilipinas (Peasant Movement of the Philippines) signifies the Arroyo government's real attitude towards land rights--- insincere, abusive, and violent. For as long as the landlord class exists and controls Philippine lands, there will be no substantial change in quality of life in the Philippines. Without genuine agrarian reform, there can be no social or economic progress in the Philippines.

We fully demand that House Bill 3059 (Genuine Agrarian Reform Act of 2007) recently filed by Philippine Partylists Bayan Muna, Anakpawis and Gabriela Women's Party be considered by those legislators in the Philippine Congress who genuinely want to serve the Philippine nation. The bill aims to break up land monopoly and distribute lands to the tillers for free.
The Arroyo government, through its reactionary and bogus Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR), has since bastardized and distorted the true meaning of genuine land reform and tried to pass it off as stock distribution options and various types of disingenuous land reclassification under the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP).

While the Arroyo military operation Oplan Bantay Laya (Operation Freedom Watch) has already seen over 890 legal activists killed and over 300 abducted, we must never forget that thousands and thousands of landless, unarmed peasants in the countryside have already died as the result of the massive militarization meant to eliminate the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP), the New People's Army (NPA), and National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP).

We believe Philippine soil is property of Filipinos first and foremost, and its richness of natural resources should be enjoyed by the Philippine nation. To date, Philippine agribusiness is dominated by transnational corporations (TNC's) rather than Filipinos themselves.

JUSTICE FOR THE VICTIMS OF THE MENDIOLA MASSACRE OF 1987!
JUSTICE FOR THE VICTIMS OF THE HACIENDA LUISITA MASSACRE OF 2004!
SURFACE JONAS BURGOS!
APPROVE H.B. 3059 (GENUINE AGRARIAN REFORM ACT OF 2007)!
LAND TO THE PEASANTS, NOT THE LANDLORDS

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Photos contributed

by Candice Reyes

of the Philippine Collegian

◄Click to view high resolution photo

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