CITY OF SAN FERNANDO – As farmers from Central Luzon brace to commemorate on Jan. 22 the so-called Mendiola Massacre 26 years ago, militants appealed yesterday to the Aquino administration to “rectify the errors of the past” by indemnifying the families of the farmers who were killed that day.
In a joint statement, Anakpawis partylist chair Fernando Hicap and Pambansang Lakas ng Kilusang Mamamalakaya ng Pilipinas (Pamalakaya) vice chair Salvador France said Pres. Aquino, as the son of the late former Pres. Corazon Aquino who was president when the massacre happened, is “historically, politically, legally and morally bound to render justice to the death of the farmers on January 22, 1987 at the foot of Mendiola bridge near Malacañang.”
“The President should bear in mind that his mother— the late Pres. Corazon Aquino failed to deliver justice to massacred peasants who were clamoring for land reform,” the statement said.
The statement said that “the wheels of justice in the case should not only consist of indemnification of the families of the victims, but also in the final distribution of 6,450 hectares of land in Hacienda Luisita and in other vast tracts of land to the landless.”
The two leaders also demanded a re-investigation of the massacre.
The statement recalled that in 2004, they appealed to Congress to enact a law that would compensate the victims of Mendiola Massacre, but this was ignored.
Hicap and France recalled that on January 22, 1987, Marine and police personnel fired at 10,000 farmers marching towards Malacañang.
The incident killed 13 peasants and wounded 105 others.
They noted that the Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP) then filed a lawsuit for reparations of P 250,000 per family of each of the slain victims and P 50,000 for each person wounded, but this proposal was rejected by the government.
The statement again named the slain 13 farmers as Danilo Arjona, Leopoldo Alonzo, Adelfa Aribe, Dionisio Bautista, Roberto Caylao, Vicente Campomanes, Ronilo Dumanico, Dante Evangelio, Angelito Gutierrez, Rodrigo Grampan, Bernabe Laquindanum, Sonny Boy Perez and Roberto Yumul.
The relatives of 13 victims later organized themselves under the Kilusang Enero 22 (KE 22) to demand justice.
After the massacre, the KMP filed a lawsuit against top government officials at that time, and also sought indemnification worth P6.5 million, but this was junked in 1988 by the Manila Regional Trial Court.
The Supreme Court affirmed the RTC’s verdict in the same year, saying the state was immune from lawsuit.
