KMP (Peasant Movement of the Philippines) Southern Mindanao Region launch of the National Peasant Caravan in Davao City
Wednesday, January 13
Ilian Burbano, CUPE Ontario International Solidarity Committee and Local 3393:
As we entered the final phase of our visit in the Philippines, half of our CUPE delegation took a 2 hour flight to the Southern Mindanao region arriving in the city of Davao (the country’s third largest in population with 5 million people). The aim of our visit was to meet with affiliates of COURAGE, the national labour centre representing 300,000 government employees, connecting with local peasant/farmworker organizations and hearing more testimonies of state-sponsored repression against legal peoples’ (popular) organizations and the civilian population. Our group was accompanied by Ferdinand Gaite, National President of COURAGE and one of CUPE’s partners in our “worker-to-worker exchange.”
January 12th is an important date for country’s rural-based mass movement because it marks the launch of a nation-wide peasant/farmworker caravan commemorating the infamous “Mendiola Massacre.” In this massacre which took place on January 22, 1987 in Manila, several peasants were shot at and murdered by state security forces while holding a protest action in opposition to the Cory Aquino government’s passage of a bogus land reform law. The Mendiola Massacre, like the Hacienda Luisita Massacre of 7 sugarcane farmworkers by the Philippines National Police and the Armed Forces in November 2004, are emblematic of the nationwide struggle for agrarian reform, which is at the heart of the country’s progressive struggles.
Our delegation had the privilege of briefly meeting with peasant farmers of the Kilusang Mugbubukid ng Pilipinas or KMP (Peasant Movement of the Philippines) of the Southern Mindanao branch, who had gathered in a church hall in Davao City to officially initiate the peasant and farmworker caravan. Like other KMP member organizations across the country, the KMP Southern Mindanao peasant activists and their allies will initiate their 1,000 km march, targeting arrival in Manila in two weeks. Similar gatherings were taking place in the diverse regions and provinces of the Philippines, as peasant and farmworker organizations began their trek to the capital city to highlight their grievances and demands. This caravan will culminate in a huge gathering of thousands of peasants at the very site close to the presidential palace where the Mendiola Massacre occurred in 1987. It will be a time to mourn and commemorate martyrs of the struggle, but it will also be a time to highlight front-and-centre the ongoing and urgent struggle by peasant farmers in the Philippines for the attainment of genuine agrarian reform.
