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Philippines
Background Note
Since President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo joined the US global "War on Terrorism", the Philippines has become the site of an ongoing war against peasant and union activists, progressive political dissidents and lawmakers, human rights lawyers and activists, women leaders and a wide range of print and broadcast journalists. Because of the links between the Army, the regime and the death squads, political assassinations take place in an atmosphere of absolute impunity. The vast majority of the attacks occur in the countryside and provincial towns.
Extract from Philippines: the Killing of Asia by James Petras and Robin Eastman-Abaya
He had dreamed of being someone his father was not and could never hope to be. What that was, only time would tell. If he had time. Edgar (not his real name) threw a doleful glance at his sleeping siblings on the earthen floor of their shanty. Poor things! They had gone to sleep hungry last night. There was hardly a morsel of rice in the house. And Mang Andres, their father, was out of work. Since he joined the United Luisita Workers’ Union, he would leave the house at dawn for the picket line, not the sugar-cane fields. More often than not, he could not come home for weeks on end. He had to be at the picket line, providing security for the Union leaders who were being watched and tailed. He had to explain to visitors why they were on strike… what they wanted from the landlords – the Cojuangco clan – family of former President Corazon Aquino…how it was possible for the farm workers to brave the harassment from police and military forces and paid goons of the Cojuangcos. Edgar did not understand. How he wished the farmers would just give in to the landlords’ wishes and quietly return to work. Then, perhaps, there would be some rice on the table for his brothers and sisters.
More than fifteen years ago, the farmers were seduced into a scheme where they were considered as “stockholders” of Hacienda Luisita, Inc. (HLI). But that did not make things any better for them. They continued to receive starvation wages while the Cojuangcos remained one of the richest families in the country. The collective dissatisfaction of the 5,750 sugar-mill workers and farm workers came to a head in November 2004 through a strike following the dismissal of more than 320 labourers. Like all other peasants, they had but one call: land to the tillers!
Every day, thereafter, Edgar would bring cans of drinking water to the
striking peasants. He would linger a while to listen to the leaders talk
about their demands. Each day, the strike area mushroomed with uniformed
men. Their long arms and fierce facial expressions were fearsome… Intimidating.
Once in a while, they would shout invectives at the farmers. Sometimes,
their guns were pointed at the strikers. But the farmers stood their ground.
They would stay put as their union leaders indefatigably negotiated for
more humane conditions for them all. After all, weren’t they human
beings?
On that fateful November 16, the combined forces of the Philippine National
Police and the Armed Forces of the Philippines mercilessly pounced upon
the farm workers violently dispersing them. Volleys of fire from nozzles
of high powered guns, clouds of tear gas that blurred their vision, shrieks
and screams of pain, people scampering in all directions, bloody bodies
strewn all around. Total pandemonium!
Edgar, with his water cans, ran toward the strike area, dodging the bullets. As he desperately searched for his father, he felt his body being lifted and carried away. And then searing pain. A burly soldier hung him on the barbed wire fence. Just like the crucified Jesus on the cross. Blood oozed from his arms and back. A gunshot rang. Edgar died without finding his father. He couldn’t even say goodbye to his mother and siblings. The drinking water that he was going to give to the thirsty strikers that day flowed out of the cans on to the dusty road to join the rivulets of blood from dead and wounded bodies.
That carnage was but the start of a relentless HLI campaign against the terrorism of the State. The farm workers kept the strike up, braving the gigantic military trucks that rolled past their tents. The massacre became a rallying point of solidarity. Edgar’s siblings told their stories again and again. Church people, professionals, youth and students, religious leaders from many parts of the world flocked to Tarlac to stand where it all happened and to be imbued by the indomitable spirit of courage… the deep passion for freedom and justice… the hope that springs eternal in the hearts of the exploited and the oppressed.
On December 8 2005, the United Luisita Workers’ Union and the Central Azucarera De Tarlac Labor Union ended their year-long strike by signing agreements with the management. They got all that they demanded for. Thirteen martyrs and countless attacks on their human dignity are what Hacienda Luisita labourers can show to give evidence to the legitimacy of their struggle for land jobs and decent wages.
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