Workers support calls for Mendiola massacre probe

In time for the Mendiola massacre’s 24th anniversary, labor center Kilusang Mayo Uno expressed its support for the call of farmer group Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP) to reinvestigate the massacre.

“Justice should be served now on the unforgiveable crime that is the Mendiola massacre. The 24 years that passed without holding even a single person accountable for the death of 13 farmers only show how rotten our country’s judicial system is,” said Elmer “Bong” Labog, KMU chairperson.

“We in KMU were there when the Filipino farmers and people marched in Mendiola calling for genuine land reform in 1987. We join our comrades in KMP in calling for a reinvestigation into the violence that met the marching farmers, workers and people 25 years ago,” Labog added.

“The Mendiola massacre happened under an Aquino government and the next notorious case of agrarian massacre in the country, the Luisita massacre, happened in the Aquinos’ hacienda. We persevere in our call for land and justice especially now that another Aquino is president of the country,” he said.

The labor center also condemned the President for refusing to address the issue of land reform which it says is behind farmers’ protests.

“It is the lack of genuine land reform in the country and the monopolization of agricultural lands by landlords that are behind the protests in Mendiola and Luisita that were met by the military with bullets.

“What we are sensing in President Aquino’s moves in Hacienda Luisita is a systematic effort to prevent the distribution of land to the hacienda’s tillers. Aquino remains anti-land reform even and especially in his family’s own land.

“Because Noynoy can’t even take the first step to resolve the Mendiola massacre in a just manner, the Filipino workers, farmers and people expect nothing from his promise of bringing about change in the long-running agrarian problem in the country,” Labog concluded.