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Lumads and Moro peoples troop to the Department of National Defense at Camp Aguinaldo in Quezon City on October 23 to protest Martial Law, militarization, rampant killings, increased surveillance on activists and suspected individuals, violent dispersals of people’s protests in Mindanao.

Martial Law in Mindanao was enforced by the government last year following the Marawi siege of the Maute brothers and other ISIS-inspired groups. Martial Law was extended until the end of 2017 even after fighting ended and then another year, until the end of 2018.

Members of Kalumaran and Save our Schools Network, who temporarily evacuated to Manila to hold the ‘bakwit school’ of Lumad children, and Suara Bangsamoro members led the protest.

“The regime’s response to the people’s legitimate demands is nothing but ultra-fascist attacks which exposes its outright neglect to our poor condition,” said Kerlan Fanagel, Vice Chairperson of Kalumaran.

The group cited several massacres under Duterte’s rule such as the Lake Sebu Massacre, Patikul Massacre, the killings of peasants in Compostela Valley and Caraga, and in other parts of Mindanao, where total death toll numbers to 153.

“Thousands became internal refugees due to Duterte’s bloodthirsty policies. Our youth had to stop studying because of the forced closure of our schools,” stated Fanagel.

The groups lament that aside from extrajudicial killings of drug war suspects, peasant, indigenous peoples and activists, countless cases of arbitrary arrests of student and youth activists, peasant leaders, union organizers and other known dissenters were recorded, like the case of GenSan 13. They also decried the attempts of government forces to suppress rallies, fear-mongering and red-tagging and the violent dispersals of picket lines, such as the cases of Shinsun and NAMASUFA strikes.

The Moro peoples’ group protested that displaced residents of Marawi are not yet allowed to return home and are unable to rebuild their lives even a year after the ‘liberation of Marawi.’

“Duterte and his minions consciously and indiscriminately use fascist terror even though it’s more than obvious that the poverty and hunger of the people, which necessitates substantial economic reforms, is the root of their revolt,” stated Jerome Succor Aba, national chairperson of Suara Bangsamoro.

“The people of Mindanao and the Filipinos in general demand change. Two years has passed since he assumed presidency but there is no sign of any improvement in our lives,” he added.

Protests across Mindanao

Simultaneously, thousands of Mindanaoans under the Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (BAYAN) Mindanao and Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP) Mindanao held rallies in Cagayan de Oro and Davao City others to “demand the accountability of [President Rodrigo] Duterte’s regime for its crimes.”

In a statement, BAYAN Mindanao and KMP Mindanao accused the Duterte of “waging a colossal fascist terror and warfare against the people, from the destruction of Marawi, to the continuing bombings and militarization, terror reigns supreme in Mindanao.”

The groups stated that the Duterte administration turned the lands of Mindanao into “killing fields” by murdering peasants, workers, Lumad, and Moro people with impunity under the counter-insurgency program ‘Oplan Kapayapaan’ and ample supply of weapons by Chinese and Russian arms dealers.

“Oplan Kapayapaan bastardizes ‘peace’ and is obviously patterned on the United States counter-insurgency guide. Around 75% of the Armed Forces of the Philippines are deployed in Mindanao and they are using foreign military equipment to kill and sow terror among our people. The US-Duterte regime doesn’t only violate our right to life but also our national patrimony and sovereignty,” the groups added.

The groups said that since yesterday, arrests of agricultural workers have been made in Cagayan de Oro City as a means to stop the region-wide peasant rally in time with the International Peasant Month. Two members of Onyon sa Yanong Obrerong Nagkahiusa (Union of United Agricultural Workers – OGYON) were illegally arrested and detained by members of the Philippine National Police and Philippine Army in a checkpoint in Lumbo, Valencia City in Bukidnon.

The groups also condemned the government’s smear campaign against rallies organized by BAYAN Mindanao and KMP Mindanao by linking it to the “Red October” destabilization plot. They said it is black propaganda to discredit the the legitimate calls and demands of the people and divert the attention of the people from the real issues that affect them.

Based on the Philippine Statistics Authority, inflation rates are skyrocketing in Mindanao regions. The Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao has the highest inflation rate across the country, which reached 8.1% last August. Several regions in Mindanao also surpassed the national average such as Region IX and X. Food production also slowed down due to the bombings of rice fields and displacement of peasants. In some provinces, a kilo of rice costs more than PHP 70.00.

“We will not cower over Duterte’s iron-fist rule, nor will we falter in advancing our rights and fighting for genuine social change. While the fascists bathe with the blood of the people, resistance become a necessity even more. Our present situation demands not sham reforms nor empty promises. The crisis rapidly accumulates and requires the ouster of the fascist US-Duterte regime. We are appealing to the Filipino people to heed and support, in any form, our just call.” the groups said. #

The post Mindanaons decry Martial law, killings, arrests, high prices appeared first on Manila Today.

On October 23, church people, especially bishops, priests, deacons and lay people of the Iglesia Filipina Independiente (IFI) or Aglipayan Church, joined the Mindanao Day of Protests spearheaded by peasant organizations. They support the struggle of the peasant organizations for genuine agrarian reform and rural development.

October is Peasant Month as declared by the peasant movement in the Philippines.

Why October?

The month of October is supposedly the “emancipation” of the poor farmers through Ferdinand Marcos’ PD 27, issued on October 21, 1972, declaring the whole country covered for land reform but for “rice and corn” only. It is a sham land reform because the Marcos regime allowed landowners to transform their landholdings into a commercial lands, most specially plantations of banana, pineapple, rubber, palm oil, mango and other cash crops.

At present, with the suspension of the peace talks between the government and National Democratic Front of the Philippines, the land problems worsen.

The “land-to-the-tiller” demand of the poor peasants was paid by blood as seen in recent spate of farmers’ killings and other forms of military attacks against peasant communities nationwide. The latest is the Sagay massacre in Negros Occidental.

Some leaders of the peasant organizations are arbitrarily arrested and detained or abducted slapped with trumped-up charges or even killed.

The breaking of the monopoly of big tracts of land is impossible without an implementation of genuine agrarian reform and rural development.

The government “land reform programs and laws” such as the Presidential Decree No. 27, Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP), National Tourism Act of 2009 and Special Economic Zones (SEZ) Act, have allowed landowners to deny the farmers of land distribution and even convert lands to non-agricultural use.

According to Ibon Foundation (Ibon), records in the Department of Agrarian Reform “show that 98,939 hectares of land were approved for conversion from 1988 to 2016, while 120,381 hectares were approved for exemption from land reform coverage for the same period.”

“The National Irrigation Administration (NIA), an average of 165,000 hectares of irrigated prime agricultural lands are converted to other uses annually. Varying data and evidence from the ground show that there have been illegal conversions and correspondingly, violations of social and economic rights of farming and fishing communities affected by such conversions,” said a report by Ibon.

Genuine land reform is always a challenge of the struggling people. In fact, the national democratic struggle is basically a peasant struggle. The ongoing peace negotiations between the Philippine government and the NDFP had addressed the land problem and the Comprehensive Agreement on Social and Economic Rights (CASER), which includes the implementation of genuine agrarian reform as a necessary first step in addressing the root causes of pervasive poverty especially in the rural areas. The agreements on agrarian reform and rural development were set to be signed last June 2018, but was aborted by the military officials in the Duterte administration.

The Duterte regime had abandoned the peace talks and fully followed the powerful landlord and comprador interests, also that of his military-cabinet officials.

The farmers’ organizations have vowed to sustain their concerted action pressing for genuine agrarian reform, rural development and national industrialization.

In Mindanao, however, the peasant organizations are not only fighting for genuine land reform. They are also fighting against Martial Law in Mindanao, massive human rights violations, military, police and paramilitary abuses and attacks and plunder of the natural resources by the foreign investors and local corporations.

The struggle of the peasant organizations, especially the poor and middle farmers, along with workers and other democratic sectors in the Philippine society have to face also the current rice crisis, high inflation rate and rising costs of the basic commodities and services, like water, electricity, transport and other government fees.

Comprising more than 70% of Philippine society, the poor and middle peasants and farm-workers are the most exploited, oppressed and neglected people in the Philippine society. Along with the national minorities, they suffer the most from the economic crisis and the first victims of state terrorism and fascism in the countryside.

Many church people had already awaken on the true problems of the Filipino peasantry.

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The IFI recognized the need for a strong solidarity of all struggling sectors who are addressing the same problems.

Other churches and church organizations have been also supporting the struggle of the peasant sector. The Rural Missionaries in the Philippines has been doing it since its foundation. It continues to say at present, “As Christians who vowed to serve the rural poor, we are one with the Filipino peasants in the continuing struggle for land, justice and peace.”

The IFI will never waive its prophetic role to denounce the evils that inflict the Filipino people, especially the peasants, fisherfolk and national minorities.

The Supreme Council of Bishops of the IFI in May 1988 had issued statement in solidarity with the struggling Filipino peasantry, which most of us, clergy and lay people have cherished.

“The Iglesia Filipina Independiente has no land to give and wealth to offer. We only have ourselves to share. Living out our heritage is our response,” read a part of the statement.

The IFI concluded its statement (May 1988) with a call: “Let us all come together to resolve them so that this country shall be a land of justice and peace.”

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