TOMORROW marks the 40th day since the murder of farmer-leader Ka Rene Peñas. His friends in Akbayan have called on those whose lives ‘Nong Rene (short for “Manong,” or elder brother) had touched, including the nationwide community of advocates and supporters that sprung into being through the Sumilao farmers’ ultimately successful struggle for land, to remember him and the cause he fought for. “In life ‘Nong Rene was a valiant, brilliant and courageous peasant leader who struggled for the land of the Sumilao farmers and other farmers, an imposing figure in the struggle for the reform and extension of CARP; in death Ka Rene has become an icon of the continuing struggle for agrarian reform.”

Peñas died soon after hearing that the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program Extension with Reforms or Carper bill had passed Congress. He was in Sumilao, Bukidnon when the news of the passage of HB 4077 arrived. He told family and friends: “Nidaug na ‘ta! [We have won!]” He was shot to death, by still unidentified persons, two days later.

From experience, we know it will be extremely difficult to identify and eventually punish those who killed a poor man like Peñas and those who ordered the killing. The temptation among his fellow farmers in Sumilao and his now-national constituency of agrarian reform advocates and supporters may be to be consumed by revenge or frustrated by the lack of progress; and yet, from what we can see, there is very little of that. Those Peñas walked with, on the road to meaningful agrarian reform, would rather remember the life he led, and be inspired by it. Tomorrow, 40 days after his death, is a good day to start.