Stop the killings!

Starting today, June 30, 2021, President Rodrigo Duterte has 365 days in office, and farmers say enough is enough. For Duterte’s last year in office, we say tama na, sobra na, wakasan na ang paghahari ng dilim. Duterte’s long and bloody reign must end. There will be no encore for the tyrant in Malacanang.

We do not want an extension of the murderous Duterte regime. Duterte running as vice-president for the 2022 elections is unacceptable and despicable, says KMP’s Danilo Ramos, in reaction to Duterte’s pronouncement of the possibility of him running as Vice-President.

We cannot condone the nonstop killings, state-sponsored crimes, and human rights violations against Filipinos. Duterte’s drug war alone has cost more than 30,000 lives, while political killings have reached several hundred.

KMP and peasant rights watchdog Tanggol Magsasaka has documented 333 farmers killed since 2016. The victims were mostly peasant leaders, indigenous people, fisherfolk, and peasant women defending their right to the land. Farmers were killed in the course of their assertion of genuine land reform which Duterte shunned after he terminated the peace talks, created the NTF-ELCAC, and launched an all-out war against his critics.

Aside from peasant killings, Tanggol Magsasaka has documented at least 25 gruesome massacres under Duterte’s watch. State forces — police, military, and alleged death squads have committed these killings and crimes. KMP also raised alarm over the recent crackdown in Bohol and Masbate that led to the arrest of farmers.

Ramos said: “We will pursue justice for the victims of peasant killings. We will support an ICC probe on the killings under the Duterte administration.” ###

Image from Karapatan.