AFTER conveying their grievances to the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) last week, the peasants who were violently dispersed by police during a protest action in Kidapawan City early this month have formally filed criminal and administrative charges against local government and law enforcement officials before the Office of the Ombudsman in Davao City Monday.
The complainants include the families of farmers who were shot during the dispersal as well as those who were illegally arrested and detained by the Philippine National Police (PNP)-Soccsksargen, said Jerome Aba, national spokesman of Suara Bangsamoro, one of the support groups that is helping the peasants.
It can be recalled that some 6,000 farmers from all over North Cotabato barricaded a portion of the highway in Kidapawan to demand from the local and national governments food assistance due to the El Niño that has destroyed farmlands due to the drought. Three farmers were killed and dozens were injured in the dispersal that ensued.
Lawyer Edre Olalia, secretary-general of the National Union of People’s Lawyer (NUPL), said the aggrieved farmers had filed the complaints in two batches.
The first wave of complaints, prepared by the Union of People’s Lawyer in Mindanao (UPLM) and was filed Monday morning by Ebao Sulang, Victor Lumondan Jr., Arnel Takyawan, Mark Anthony Delgado and Lumenario Agustin, was for illegal arrest and detention against 77 police officers, armed forces members, and government officials.s
The second wave, Olalia said, prepared by the NUPL and Public Interest Law Center (PILC), was for murder, frustrated murder, attempted murder, obstruction of justice, torture and physical injuries, and violation of right to assembly.
Complainants in the second set are Gerardo Alborme, Bai Ali Indayla, Sheena Duazo, Loreto Felizardo, Zandro Redondo, Mark Anthony Delgado, Dionisio Alagos, Crisanto Carlum, Valentina Berden, Jovita Debalid, Lolita Porras, Mirriam Damiog, Arlene Candiban, Eliza Candiban, Rolinda Paonil, Lumeriano Agustin, and Christopher Candiban.
According to the human rights group Karapatan, at least 94 national and local officials, police and military officers were charged for their involvement and participation in the various grave human rights violations against the farmers.
Those who are facing the charges include North Cotabato Governor Emmylou Taliño-Mendoza, members of the North Cotabato Crisis Committee, Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) secretary Mel Senen Sarmiento, PNP Director General Ricardo Marquez, Kidapawan Mayor Joseph Evangelista, PNP 12 regional director Chief Superintendent Noel Armilla, provincial police director Superintendent Alexander Tagum, among others.
The respondents could not be reached for comment as of Monday.
“Despite all odds, famished Kidapawan farmers have decided to bite the bullet by taking the first legal step in the long, risky and tortuous journey to seek justice, fight back and make accountable the high and mighty,” Olalia in a text message to this paper said.
“Our struggle for food, land and justice is legitimate, and we will pursue justice in every possible way. We are not cowed by various sinister government attempts to harass and intimidate us and to cover up for these officials’ accountability,” said Gerry Alborme, Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP)-North Cotabato spokesperson and one of the complainants in the complaint.
Aside from the criminal and administrative complaints, the complainants have also called for an investigation of officials who violated Republic Act 3019 for negligence and failure to place the proper measures that could have mitigated the effects of El Niño and possible misappropriation of calamity funds.
Meanwhile, Cristina Palabay, Karapatan secretary-general, in a separate statement, has condemned the Aquino administration for absolving the PNP officers from liability in the dispersal.
“Since the violent dispersal, BS Aquino and his PNP, Cabinet and local government lost no time in destroying the crime scene and tampering evidence; harassing victims, witnesses and their kin; producing paid witnesses and in sowing the most spectacular and outrageous lies to cover up their accountability for the incident,” Palabay said.
She added: “This regime has no compassion for hungry farmers, no public funds to spare for calamity funds, while it readily makes excuses for the use of public funds for the election campaign of the Liberal Party. [The Aquino government] has no interest in delivering justice for the farmers, just as how callous it is with the plight of the Lumad.”