THE Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas on Wednesday criticized the Duterte administration for lack of political will to make the kin of former President Benigno Aquino III liable for the Hacienda Luisita massacre on Nov. 16, 2004.
“Two years into his administration, [President Rodrigo] Duterte did nothing to prosecute the family of the former president. With that, Duterte now has supreme accountability on the continued denial of justice for Hacienda Luisita massacre and human rights victims,” KMP chairperson Danilo Ramos said.
Agrarian reform advocates commemorate today the 13th year of the Hacienda Luisita massacre when police officers opened fire at the protesting farmers demanding for higher wages, better working conditions and land on Nov. 16, 2004.
Ramos called on the government to prosecute and punish the perpetrators for the massacre and string of human rights abuses at the Hacienda Luisita.
He expressed fear that under the Duterte administration, Aquino and his clan “can get away with anything.”
“The issue of human rights will always be a thorn in the side of the President. We will continue to press and turn that thorn until he bleeds,” he said, referring to the failure of the 31st Association of Southeast Asian Nations Summit to take the issue of human rights.
“Whichever way Duterte attempts to conceal the human rights situation in the country, it is public knowledge that thousands were killed in the anti-drugs war and politically motivated extrajudicial killings continue daily. Worse, justice remain elusive for victims and survivors of the Luisita massacre, 13 years after blood spilled on oligarch land Hacienda Luisita in Tarlac,” Ramos said.