[asia-apec 1008] Twelve years after Mendiola massacre

[tpl at cheerful.com]

>From KMP (Peasant Movement of the Philippines) 
>22 January 1999
>
>Mendiola massacre widows hit Estrada's bogus land reform
>
>MANILA (Jan. 22) -- HUNDREDS of protesters today retraced the tragic
peasant march of twelve years ago from the Department of Agrarian Reform
(DAR) to the Mendiola Bridge that saw the massacre of thirteen peasants who
were among thousands in a rally demanding genuine land reform from the
Aquino government.
>
>The militant Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP: Peasant Movement of
the Philippines) joined Kilusang Enero Beinte Dos (KE22: January 22
Movement), an organization formed by the widows and orphans of the martyred
peasants. Together they asked anew that justice be given the Mendiola
massacre victims. They also demanded implementation of genuine land reform
and the scrapping of new schemes by the Estrada government that worsen
landlessness among the peasantry.
>
>Last night, KE22 veterans broke in tears while watching a documentary film
of the massacre during a ceremony honoring the martyrs and sponsored by
students and church people encamped in front of the DAR national office.
>
>Teresita Arjona, KE22 council member, lamented that twelve years after the
incident, justice still eludes their families and that the government still
refuses to implement a genuine land distribution program.
>
>KMP chair Rafael Mariano denounced the US-Estrada regime for its deceptive
schemes that would intensify land monopoly enjoyed by comprador-landlords.
He scored DAR secretary Horacio Morales for issuing Administrative Order
No. 9 last December, which would implement on a nationwide scale the
"corporative agrarian reform" model concocted by Danding Cojuanco, a well
known crony of the late dictator Marcos, for his Negros sugarlands.
>
>In the immediate term, AO No. 9 virtually excludes 218,000 hectares of
commercial farms from the scope of compulsory acquisition and
redistribution to landless tenants by offering instead stock shares,
contract growing arrangements and leaseholds. It would render into wage
slaves the future generations of peasants who will continue to be deprived
of their own land.
>
>Farmers from Central Luzon and Southern Tagalog likewise joined the
January 22 march-rally to protest the rising tide of militarization and
human rights violations in the rural areas. According to the Katipunan ng
mga Samahang Magbubukid sa Timog Katagalugan (KASAMA-TK), the US-Estrada
regime flagrantly violates international human rights instruments and the
recently signed Comprehensive Agreement on Respect for Human Rights and
International Humanitarian Law (CAHRIHL) between the government and the
National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP).
>
>The human rights group KARAPATAN documented 70 cases of illegal arrests,
torture, imprisonment, strafing, arson and looting committed against the
peasants in 1998. Culpability is shared by both the Ramos and Estrada
administrations.
>
>KMP chapters in the capitals of Kotabato, Cebu, Davao, Negros, Albay and
Leyte conducted their own mass actions to demand genuine land reform and
the scrapping of A.O. No. 9. 
>
>Meanwhile, led by PESANTE (Philippine Peasant Support Network), about a
hundred Filipinos and their friends trooped to the Philippine Consulate in
Los Angeles, California to protest the Estrada government's complicity in
abetting illegal land-use conversion in Batangas.
>
>PESANTE said the the Philippine National Bank is supporting the Fil-Estate
and Manila South Coast Development Corp. with funds to guarantee purchases
by US-based investors who are sweet-talked into buying retirement havens in
Hacienda Looc. Two thousand peasant families in Looc are fighting the real
estate giants from destroying their farms planted to rice and sugarcane.
>
>*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *
>
>MENDIOLA MASSACRE 
>
>Perpetrators: Members of the Philippine National Marines
>		Western Police District (WPD) of the Philippine National Police
>
>Date of incident: January 22, 1987
>
>Place of incident: Mendiola Bridge, Manila, Philippines
>
>Number of victims: 13 dead, 62 wounded
>
>Names of dead victims:
>1. Danilo Arjona		8. Leopoldo Alonzo
>2. Adelfa Aribe		9. Dionisio Bautista
>3. Roberto Caylao		10. Vicente Campomanes
>4. Ronilo Dumanico		11. Dante Evangelio
>5. Angelito Gutierrez	12. Rodrigo Grampan
>6. Bernabe Laquindanum	13. Sonny Boy Perez
>7. Roberto Yumul
>
>Background of the case:
>
>During the campaign for the 1986 presidential elections, candidate Corazon
Aquino promised to implementat a genuine land reform program.
>
>Nearly a year  after Aquino came to power after the Edsa uprising, she
initiated peace negotiations with the National Democratic Front (NDF),
tackling among many other strategic issues the persistent problem of
landlessness and social inequalities that trigger social unrest and armed
revolution in the countryside.
>
>On January 15, 1987, peasants belonging to the Kilusang Magbubukid ng
Pilipinas (KMP) pitched tents in front of the national office of the
Department of Agrarian Reform in Quezon City to demand implementation of
genuine agrarian reform.
>
>After fruitless talks with secretary Heherson Alvarez, 11,000 peasants,
supported by some 10,000 allies from the church, trade unions, students and
the middle class, decided to proceed to Malacañang (presidential palace). A
phalanx of anti-riot police and Philippine Marines blocked their way.
>
>As KMP leaders negotiated to be allowed to proceed to the palace gates,
policemen and soldiers opened fire on the marchers. Thirteen peasants and
fishermen were instantly killed, while 62 others were wounded. The fascist
troops unleashed a maniacal pursuit of the fleeing rallyists with guns
a-blazing down surrounding shopping centers.
>
>The incident drew  massive condemnation from various sectors. The NDF
denounced the massacre and withdrew from the negotiations. Aquino was
forced to create the Citizens' Mendiola Commission to investigate the
violent dispersal. The Commission recommended that "deceased and wounded
victims be amply compensated by the government," and that soldiers and
police involved in the crime be prosecuted.
>
>The commission was abolished even before the perpetrators were identified.
Meawhile, the Commission on Human Rights offered P10,000 for each of the
dead victims. The victims' families rejected the offer. They wanted justice
for their dead and wounded kin.
>
>On January 22, 1998, two years after the incident, the victims' relatives
filed a lawsuit against the government and several police and military
officers for damages amounting to P6.5 million. Named defendants were:
National Defense Secretary Gen. Fidel Ramos who later became the Philippine
president; AFP Chief of Staff Gen. Renato de Villa; WPD Superintendent
B/Gen. Alfredo Lim; Gen. Rodolfo Biazon, chief of the Phil. Marines, who is
now a senator; B/Gen. Brigido Paredes, Marines commandant; Col. Edgar dula
Torre and Col. Romeo Monfort of the CAPCOM; and WPD deputy superintendent
Cesar Nazareno who later became PNP chief.
>
>The government invoked immunity from the suit ("the State cannot be sued
without its consent"), and the case was dismissed by the Manila Regional
Trial Court. The case was elevated to the Supreme Court which also
dismissed the case.
>
>Today, twelve years after the carnage in Mendiola, the victims' relatives
are still demanding justice. Furthermore, the problem of landlessness for
which their surviving families have fought for has even intensified in the
past ten years.
>
>The agony of the massacre victims' relatives is compounded by the burden
of rearing their families all by themselves. 
>
>Several months after Danilo Arjona's murder at Mendiola, his widow
Teresita was forced to give return to the landlord the half-hectare of rice
farm leased to her family. Plowing is too much for her frail health. For
some time, she worked as a household help for a Japanese businessman in San
Pablo City. Nowadays, after working in the fields, she rushes to the town
market where she peddles vegetables in order to make ends meet and try to
send her five children to school.
>
>Life is equally hard for Nelia Perez and her children. After the death of
her husband, Sonny Boy, a farmer and fisherman, Nelia had to take on
farming chores to support her children. Her youngest, Anna Karisma, now in
fifth grade, never saw her father. Sonny Boy was not even aware that Nelia
was then pregnant with Anna Karisma.
>
>Randy Bautista, 16, of Orion, Bataan, is supposed to be in high school.
But he stopped schooling two years ago after finishing fifth grade. Randy's
mother was forced to leave him in the care of his grandparents.
>
>Rolando Campomanes, son of Vicente, has also stopped going to school and
is now a construction worker.#
>