Crime of insensitivity to plight of farmers

We, consecrated men and women members of the Religious Discernment Group, strongly condemn the wicked, violent and unjust dispersal of the farmers and lumad in Kidapawan last April 1.  Reeling from the effects of drought brought about by El Niño, these hungry farmers occupied the Kidapawan highway to demand from the government the immediate release of rice subsidy to tide them over until the drought breaks. Gov. Emmylou Taliño Mendoza called this blockade “criminal.”

To be sure, what is criminal is the government’s insensitivity to the impact of the drought on the farmers’ lives. In the New Testament, Jesus asks: “Is there anyone among you who, if your child asks for bread will give a stone?” (Matt 7:9). Not only did the governor and the Philippine National Police give a stone; they also answered with bullets and water cannons. What is criminal is that rather than focusing on concrete and sustainable plans to improve land security and production on farmers’ lands, the government is instead pushing for large-scale industrial agribusiness (e.g., oil palm plantations) and mining, which displace farmers and “lumad,” and add to climate change which increases the effects of the droughts.

We condole with the families and friends of the three farmers killed by the police and demand penalty for the perpetrators.  We demand the immediate release of the 79 detained protesters. We demand justice for the more than 116 persons reportedly injured in this cruel dispersal. We also condemn the harassment of the farmers taking refuge in the Methodist church compound and demand that this siege end so that the farmers may leave in safety.

We hold Governor Mendoza responsible for this terrible tragedy and call on her to release immediately the rice subsidy to the farmers. She has the authority, the province having been declared in a state of calamity.  We ask for an independent investigation into the incident and an end to impunity which allows such human rights violations to continue unabated. We call on President Aquino to condemn this atrocity, which is reminiscent of the Mendiola and Hacienda Luisita massacres under his mother’s term.  For the long term, we call on the government to take seriously the gospel imperative to give bread to the hungry by implementing genuine agrarian reform.

—SR. PATRICIA FOX, NDS, convener, SR. ALICE LANSANG, ICM, convener, Religious Discernment Group, [email protected]