The bloody dispersal of activists in Kidapawan, the Philippines, by Philippine police last week was yesterday condemned by Taiwanese and Philippine workers and activists in a protest outside the Philippine Representative Office in Taiwan.
Philippine residents of Taoyuan’s Serve the People migrant worker shelter made up the majority of about 30 protesters, who prayed for farmers and police officers injured in last week’s clash.
The protesters shouted “Rice not bullets!” in Mandarin, Tagalog and Visaya, blasting Philippine police for opening fire last week on farmers who had blocked a main highway in Mindanao, demanding rice and subsidies following a drought.
The Philippine Senate is conducting an investigation into whether police or farmers initiated the clash.
Protesters said that at least two people were killed and 350 were injured, while 70 people were arrested.
“So far farmers have not received any government aide,” Serve the People Association director Lennon Wong (汪英達) said, calling on the Philippine government to provide subsidies for farmers affected by the drought, while dropping the charges against the farmers and lifting the blockade of a church sheltering them.
“We are here as migrant workers, but most of us are sons, daughters or grandchildren of farmers,” said Gilda Banugan, chairperson of the Philippine migrant worker political party, Migrante. “These farmers are responsible for bringing food to the tables of the entire nation. They endure exhaustion and hunger to cultivate the land under severe weather conditions, and yet how did we return the favor? Instead of paying attention to their simple request for food we returned the favor with bullets.”
“It is my government’s moral obligation to provide justice and honor to those who lost their lives in the Kidapawan incident,” said Jasmin Ruas of Women Migrant Workers Taiwan (Migranteng Kababaihan sa Taiwan). “They should give [the farmers] back their hard-earned money and they should give honor and justice to the families who lost loved ones in the attack.”
The protest was organized by members of the Taiwan Committee for Philippine Concerns, with members of the Taiwanese Association for Human Rights (TAHR) and several other Taiwanese civil groups participating.
“The Philippine government has signed numerous international human rights treaties and promised to abide by international standards, so their lack of action [to aide farmers] and the killing of farmers is totally unacceptable,” TAHR vice secretary-general Shih Yi-hsiang (施逸翔) said. “The farmers were virtually barehanded and unarmed other than sling-shots or stones from the ground.”
Candles and photographs were placed on the ground in front of protesters who concluded their protest with a song calling farmers the “true heroes” of the Phillippines.
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