2 killed, 33 hurt as farmers, police clash during Kidapawan dispersal operations

The farmers claimed they were fired upon by policemen who tried to break the human barricade they formed that virtually blocked the Makilala-Kidapawan Highway.

When the smoke of fire cleared, two farmers were killed while at least 33 others were injured, 20 of them policemen who were hurt when the farmers fought back with rocks and scrap metals.

North Cotabato Gov. Emmylou Mendoza said two people died during the dispersal operations. They were identified as Rogelio Daelto and Victor Lumagdang, both farmers from Barangay Binoongan, Arakan.

Chief Superintendent Wilben mayor, PNP spokesman, said two police officers are in critical condition.

Among the injured were Sheena Duazo of the Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan); Alan Jampas of Barangay Meocan, Arakan; Ernie Carmelo of Barangay Doruluman, Arakan; Rodolfo Tanio of Barangay Binoongan, Arakan; and a certain Ilyong of Barangay Tongao, Magpet. Duazo was hit in the head by a stone during the dispersal operations.

The farmers, who have been demanding rice, government financial aid, free vegetable seedlings, and higher prices for their agricultural products, said the police fired at them. But police said the farmers, some of them armed, fired at the lawmen first.

Gov. Mendoza said that at about 10:30 a.m. yesterday, about 500 police officers tried to disperse the human barricade because of lack of permit to rally.

But she said the farmers resisted and attacked the law enforcers, triggering a commotion and a series of explosions.

Mendoza said the violence erupted when the farmers attacked the police. She said her directive to the police was to exercise maximum tolerance.

The governor said the police were serving a dispersal order because the rally and the assembly were considered illegal as the farmers have no permit to occupy portions of the highway. She said the farmers were given permission to hold rally by the city government of Kidawapan only for Monday but the protesters remained in the highway, preventing the passage of government and private vehicles.

Senior Supt. Bernard Tayong, North Cotabato police spokesperson, said the police were observing maximum tolerance. But the protesters were aggressive and threw huge rocks and metals toward the law enforcers. One of the farmers allegedly shot at a police officer who was injured.

”The first shot came from the protesters,” Gov. Mendoza told reporters. Mendoza, in a press briefing, said she is taking full responsibility for what happened.

For her part, Norma Capuyan, speaking for the militant group Apo Sandawa Lumadnong Panaghiusa sa North Cotabato, a farmers’ organization, said the police opened fire on some 5,000 farmers.

“Loud bursts of gunfire erupted,” Capuyan said. “There was heavy volume of fire. We ran to a church compound and the police surrounded us.”

Pedro Arnado, chairman of the Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP), said his group is preparing charges against the provincial government and policemen involved in the violent dispersal.

But the police are also bent on filing the charges, especially traffic obstruction, against the protesters.

OFFICIALS DEPLORE DISPERSAL

Vice President and United Nationalist Alliance (UNA) standard-bearer Jejomar C. Binay condemned the deadly dispersal of farmers.

“Vice President Jejomar C. Binay deplores the use of violence to disperse farmers in Kidapawan demanding rice from government,” lawyer Rico Quicho, Binay’s campaign spokesman, said in a statement.

“Bigas ang hinihingi, pero bala ang ibinigay (They were asking for rice, but all they got were bullets),” Quicho said of the hungry farmers from Kidapawan City.

The campaign headquarters of presidential aspirant Mayor Rodrigo Duterte also condemned the attack on the farmers and lumad tribesmen.

“First there was the Mendiola massacre, then Hacienda Luisita, then the Mamasapano, and now the Kidapawan carnage,” said Maribojoc Mayor Leoncio Evasco Jr. in a press statement.

Evasco, national campaign manager of Duterte, lamented that instead of giving the protesters food because of hunger as a result of the long drought, the Aquino government decided to order the police to open fire at them.

“Blood – blood of enraged and hungered people – are soaked in the hands of the landlord class personified by the Aquino-Cojuangco clique of the ruling elite,” said Evasco.

Militant solons, among them Reps. Neri Colmenares (Bayan Muna), Terry Ridon (Kabataan Partylist), Antonio Tinio (ACT Teachers Partylist), Emmi de Jesus, and Luzviminda Ilagan (Gabriela) issued statements blaming the Aquino administration for the violence.

Presidential candidate Sen. Grace Poe said the farmers staged their activity for a rightful demand which is government aid amid the drought being experienced in the province.

“This should have been attended to by the concerned agencies at the outset that would have prevented the farmers from taking to the streets,” Poe stressed.

Her running mate, Sen. Francis “Chiz” Escudero expressed alarm at reports that some victims include children.

“I believe that every citizen has a right to freedom of assembly and the concerns of these poor farmers are valid. The least the government could do is listen to their concerns and do something about it,” Escudero said.

Even presidential candidate Sen. Miriam Defensor Santiago and her running mate Sen. Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. joined in condemning the deadly dispersal.

Santiago, a constitutional expert, said the government should be held accountable for the violence, adding that the act violated the constitutional right to freedom of assembly.

“I deplore the use of bullets to answer legitimate demands of our farmers and their families in North Cotabato. They are hungry and they are just asking for food so they can feed their families. The violent dispersal was completely unnecessary,” Marcos said.

(With reports from Francis T. Wakefield, Ellson A. Quismorio, Ben R. Rosario, Hannah L. Torregoza)

Source:
courtesy of MANILA BULLETIN

by Malu Cadelina Manar, AP & PNA

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