A NON-GOVERNMENT organization (NGO) has joined protests in calling for justice for those killed, 70 illegally arrested, and 116 wounded farmers, following the mass dispersal by the local police of some 5,000 protesting farmers in Kidapawan City in North Cotabato.
Council for Health and Development (CHD) executive director Eleanor A. Jara, in a statement emailed to Sun.Star Davao Saturday, said the protesting farmers in the province have all the right to assemble and express their demands to the government.
Jara said the attack on the farmers should not be done, saying the protesters have been suffering for about six months due to drought brought by the El Niño.
"The police should bear responsibility as it brandished its guns and ammunition to the hapless drought-affected farmers. As if the farmers' suffering is not enough, the government officials callously put the blame on the farmers," Jara said.
Reacting to the claim of the Department of Agriculture (DA) Secretary Proceso Alcala that the farmers are not suffering too much in their respective areas, Jara said clearly the agency is not aware of what is happening in the province.
"The assistance that the DA claimed it was given to the farmers was surely not enough and has failed. Hunger is prominent, as manifested by the still high hunger incidence and rising number of under-weight children in the country," Jara said.
"If these officials are happy with their so-called assistance of three kilos of rice every quarter, then they clearly do not care. President Benigno Aquino, on the other hand, plays mum on the massacre, which he usually does when his government is put in hot water," she added.
According to the reports from the National Fact-finding and Humanitarian Mission (NFHM), the police prevented the protesting farmers and even those from other areas from receiving rice donated by concerned groups and individuals.
The NHFM reported that the police wore masks, removed their nameplates, and took pictures of those seeking assistance. It was also reported that the NHFM staffs were not able to attend the victims who were brought to the hospitals because they were prevented by armed troops.
Jara appealed to the involved government agencies to stop twisting the facts and end victim-blaming, instead, government should work to provide the solutions, which are the promised El Niño aid and the needed rice assistance for the farmers.
She also said that the arrested farmers should be released without charges and officers that were involved in the shooting should be relieved of duty and punished. She added that these actions should be taken.