Twenty years ago, on the 22nd of January 1987, farmers of the Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP) and supporters marching to Mendiola were showered with bullets in one of the most violent display of force against demonstrators to this date.

The farmers came to pay the President a visit and talk about land reform – something that should have been rightfully given to them even then.

But there was no dialogue waiting to happen. Without any warning, volley after volley of gunfire was shot. (Check out GMANews.TV’s photo essay.) http://www.gmanews.tv/htmfiles/mendiolamassacre.html

By the end of the day, 19 peasants were shot and killed in what is now known as the infamous Mendiola massacre. Interviewed before the carnage and his death by gunfire, a young peasant named Sonny Boy Perez optimistically said, “Iba na ang people’s power ngayon. Hindi na kailangan ng armas dahil nakikinig ang Presidente sa atin.” (People’s power is different now. We don’t need guns since the President listens to us. – Ibon)

It now seems that he was wrong – deadly wrong. The new government’s pro-people and pro-human rights image was immediately tarnished. An agrarian reform program was devised after the bloody affair. But President Corazon Aquino’s chances for the Nobel Peace Prize for her role in the first EDSA uprising vanished.

Twenty years have passed after the Mendiola Massacre. Yet, the demand for agrarian reform, remains relevant as ever. As I have blogged about not too long ago, the struggle continues. And here is one of those struggles (from neenersih):


source: karlo mongaya's blog http://postcardheadlines.wordpress.c...m189/#more-255