A year after a change in administration, justice remains elusive for drought-hit farmers who were demanding relief from government in the form of rice but who were instead served with bullets by the police in Kidapawan City. The deaths of two farmers, including Darwin Sulang, are seared in memory while the rage over the violent display of state abuse persists.
The National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers (NUPL) condemns the impunity that those responsible for the killings continue to enjoy. The harassment cases lodged against the protesting farmers and their organizers have yet to be dismissed; on the other hand, the suits rightly filed by the farmers against the authorities responsible for the killings are gathering dust. S/Supt. Alexander Tagum, who led the brutal dispersal, remains in active duty.
Rights lawyers from the NUPL, in solidarity with human rights activists from the basic sectors, do not and will not forget. The killings in Kidapawan City on April 1, 2016, along with countless other massacres of the country’s poorest citizens—e.g., in Hacienda Luisita and in Mendiola—among other massacres, will continue to serve as the historical fuel propelling the people’s resistance forward and will eventually set ablaze the current oppressive socioeconomic system.
EPHRAIM B. CORTEZ,
secretary general, CRISTINA YAMBOT-TANSECO,
public information officer,
National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers,
nupl2007@gmail.com