Ongoing investigations into extrajudicial killings under the Rodrigo Duterte government should include massacres of farmers from 2016 to 2022, two leaders from the peasant sector demanded.
Farmer leader Danilo Ramos of the Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas and fisherfolk leader Ronnel Arambulo of PAMALAKAYA called on the House Quad Committee (QuadComm) to investigate politically-motivated killings and massacres under Duterte.
The QuadComm is currently addressing Duterte’s drug war killings, but Ramos and Arambulo said that the inquiry should also examine Duterte’s accountability for numerous killings of activists and farmers.
“Duterte is not only responsible for incentivizing drug war-related killings. He is also accountable for hundreds of extrajudicial killings of activists, including NDFP peace consultants such as the late Anakpawis President Randall Echanis, brutally murdered in August 2020,” said Arambulo in Bacolod City.
Tanggol Magsasaka (Defend Farmers) has documented 25 massacres under Duterte, resulting in the deaths of over a hundred farmers and indigenous people.
These include the Sagay (2018) and Guihulngan (2020) massacres in Negros, the Tumanduk Massacre (2020) in Capiz, the Patikul Massacre (2018) in Sulu, the Bloody Sunday Massacre (2022) across Southern Luzon, among others.
“Negros, in particular, became a testing ground for fascist policies like Memorandum Order 32 and Oplan Sauron, backed by the PNP’s Philippine National Police’s Synchronized Enhanced Managing of Police Operations (SEMPO) operations,” Arambulo noted.
“Duterte’s violent legacy is undeniable, and the House leadership must press him on the extrajudicial killings that constitute crimes against humanity,” said Ramos.
He emphasized that Duterte’s EO 70 branded activists as communist insurgents, leading to targeted killings.
The nine victims of the Bloody Sunday Massacre across Southern Luzon provinces, for instance, were all accused of resisting arrest, a tactic Duterte admitted he advised the police to employ in justifying the killings, the farmer leader added.
Both Ramos and Arambulo are senatorial candidates with Koalisyong Makabayan for the 2025 national elections. # (Raymund B. Villanueva)
