“As of last August, a total of 88 individuals fell victim to politically- motivated extra judicial killings, 81 of whom were all farmers, peasant leaders and land reform advocates,” the KMP said in a statement.
The KMP said “the strong demand for justice for all peasant victims of extrajudicial killings would be among the highlight of the Pambansang Lakbayan para sa Lupa at laban sa Pasismo, a national peasant caravan that will take place this month. “
“The peasant victims of extrajudicial killings under the Duterte administration are not mere statistics. They were fathers, mothers and they had families. They were hardworking individuals who were killed because of their staunch upholding of their right to the land,” said KMP chairperson Danilo Ramos.
KMP also assailed the continuing peasant killings and demanded justice for the victims of extrajudicial and political killings.
“There are dead bodies everywhere. The stench of death stinks too much, and the Duterte regime cannot conceal the dreadful situation of extrajudicial killings and human rights atrocities,” the group said.
Ramos said “the trend in peasant killings under Duterte showed that the victims were all subjected to the most heinous atrocities and killed in the most inhumane manner — killed execution-style by masked riding-in-tandem assassins, killed inside their house and in front of their families, killed in their farms by goons, security guards of landlords and paramilitary, husband-and-wife peasant leaders killed at the same time, leaving behind orphaned children.”
“All of them were killed because of their staunch advocacy for genuine land reform. They lived and fought for land they till but they were given bullets,” he noted.
The KMP estimated that one farmer is killed every two days.
“The killing of peasants has never stopped. They are the victims of the government’s all-out war carried out in the countryside — another side of Duterte’s triple war against the people.The deadly trio of Oplan Tokhang, all-out war and Martial Law is d estroying and endangering the lives of Filipinos. No one is safe and everybody can be a target,” added Ramos who also noted that the plunge in President Rodrigo Duterte’s satisfaction and trust ratings has everything to do with the policies that he upheld in the past year,” he noted.
