It’s now 2008 and the Philippine government has yet to implement genuine land reform program that was promised to the poor peasants long years ago. The problem of land reform dates back to the last days of the Spanish era where only a few landlords and the Catholic Church control almost all the lands in the Philippines.
The problem of land reform program were passed from one generation to another and seemingly the present generation has nothing to offer to resolve the issue because the heirs and descendants of the conquistadores and the native warlords are ruling the Philippines using their gold, guns and goons.
The poor landless farmers and peasants inherited their ancestors’ long time straggle to get back their lost possessions from the clutches of big landowners. Many of them had been killed, abducted and imprisoned with trumped up charges. Their cry for help is useless because the government officials themselves are descendants of big landowners which practically hold everything, from the executive, legislative to the judiciary.
This day, January 22, 2008 (Manila Time), is the anniversary of the “Mendiola massacre” where 13 poor and unarmed farmers and peasants were brutally killed by the combined forces of Police and Military men in 1987. The farmers are protesting the CARP or the comprehensive agrarian reform program of the then President Corazon Aquino.
The “Mendiola Massacre” is being commemorated yearly by the different farmer’s organizations in the country. Today, farmers will commemorate the massacre with a protest rally to dramatize the injustices, human degradations and the total and genuine implementations of the land reform program promised to them long years ago.