Farmers group Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP) responded affirmatively to Vice President (VP) Leni Robredo’s call for a continued fight against disinformation.

“Count us in! We farmers have long suffered against lies and deception, especially from the Marcos-Duterte camp. We are glad that VP Leni and more Filipinos are continually standing for the truth,” KMP Chairperson Danilo Ramos says.

“Ang pagsisiwalat ng katotohanan sa likod ng mga kasinungalingan ng mga Marcos-Duterte ang makakapagmulat sa mas maraming Pilipinong nabiktima ng deka-dekadang disimpormasyon at panlilinlang.”

Robredo made the call last Friday during her thanksgiving event in Quezon City attended by thousands of supporters.

“We need to become a movement that will defend the truth. We need to explain to people how lies are spreading, why it is effective, and who is behind this,” she said.

Ramos shared that farmer organizations asserting land rights against huge corporations and rich families are among the most victimized of red-tagging and terrorist-labeling, or the false association of individuals or organizations with armed organizations. KMP is a constant target of red-tagging by the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC). Robredo and her running mate Senator Kiko Pangilinan were also red-tagged by the NTF-ELCAC during the electoral campaign.

The peasant leader continued that millions of farmers were also exposed to the historical revisionism and blatant lies of the Marcos-Duterte “fake news machinery.”

“Marcos Junior and his legion of trolls consistently claimed that his father’s Masagana 99, Presidential Decree 27, and other programs were successful and should be replicated today – when in fact these programs wrecked Philippine agriculture so hard that we still suffer from their effects up to now,” he lamented.

According to Ramos, “the Dutertes are equally culpable with mass deception.” He pointed out that “Rodrigo Duterte established the NTF ELCAC and his so-called economic managers endlessly spewed neoliberal lies promising poverty alleviation but consistently caused a deeper economic decline.”

“We look forward to resuming and intensifying the work of making truth prevail with the VP Leni camp and all Filipinos ready to stand against the deluge of disinformation and misinformation propagated by Marcos-Duterte. We enjoin everyone to speak the truth on all platforms and no longer allow the preponderance of flagrant falsehoods.”

Ramos concluded that the presumptive Marcos-Duterte administration stands on wobbly legs of lies and it is upon the broad masses to reject and resist this illegitimate regime. #