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Friday, March 29, 2024

Farmers: Zero vote for Mar

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A MONTH after the violent Kidapawan dispersal that killed two farmers and injuring a hundred others, human rights group Karapatan and the Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas vowed to deliver “zero votes” for administration presidential candidate Manuel Roxas II and two other local Liberal Party officials.

Karapatan and KMP trooped to the Department of Justice in Manila Monday to decry the continuing absence of justice.

The farmers and activists urged the electorate to junk the ruling Liberal Party candidates, particularly Roxas, reelectionist North Cotabato Gov. Emmylou Taliño-Mendoza and reelectionist Kidapawan City Mayor Joseph Evangelista in the May polls.

They demanded that police authorities and government officials responsible for the killing be made accountable.

KMP secretary-general Antonio Flores said acting Justice Secretary Emmanuel Caparas is ignoring the drought-hit farmers’ plea for justice and due process.

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Quest for justice. Human rights and farmers groups picketed the Department of Justice to protest what they described as selective administration of justice in the case of the Kidapawan dispersal on April 1 that resulted in the death of two farmers and injury to scores of others. 

More than 70 individuals, mostly farmers and indigenous peoples who were illegally arrested and detained last April 1 by the North Cotabato Philippine National Police were released on bail last April 16 but they are still facing charges filed by the police.

“We demand that the charges against protesters be dismissed and that justice be served to farmers,” the peasant leader said.

“One month after the violent dispersal of the barricade set up by 6,000 farmers who were asking for food aid after their farms were seriously hit by the El Niño phenomenon, those who opened fire on the farmers and those who ordered the killing remain scot-free,” Flores said.

In fact, Flores lamented, Talino-Mendoza and Evangelista, who were both running for reelection this coming May 9 elections, were busy campaigning.

“We encourage the Region 12 electorate to junk them in the polls, along with administration presidential bet Mar Roxas,” the KMP leader said.

Talino-Mendoza is a second-term governor of North Cotabato. She defeated former vice-governor Emmanuel ‘Manny’ Pinol by more than 30,000 votes in the 2010 polls. She was reelected in 2013. She is running for a third term under the administration’s Liberal Party in the province.

“We will not let them get away with what they’ve done to the drought-stricken farmers. They have shot at starving farmers. Dapat may managot at maparusahan sa nangyari sa Kidapawan. Talino-Mendoza, Evangelista and the Aquino government are all accountable for the violence and continuing injustice against farmers in North Cotabato,” Flores said.

He stressed it was Talino-Mendoza who gave the ultimate order to disperse farmers who were demanding for food and calamity aid, as revealed during the Senate hearing on the Kidapawan incident.

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