Photo credit: CDO Encyclopedia
March 2018
Dear Friends,
The Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP), Mindanao for Civil Liberties, Tanggol Magsasaka, Asian Peasant Coalition (APC), PAN Asia Pacific (PANAP), People’s Coalition for Food Sovereignty (PCFS), Rural Missionaries of the Philippines (RMP), International League of Peoples Struggles (ILPS) Commission 6 and the Youth for Food Sovereignty (YFS) are inviting you to join an International Fact Finding and Solidarity Mission to Mindanao this coming April 6-9, 2018.
Mindanao is under attack. Martial Law in Mindanao is an instrument of suppression against the peoples’ resistance by farmers and Lumads opposed to plunder and militarization of their communities. With 71 full battalions of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) operating in the region, the Duterte government aims to secure Mindanao for local and foreign businesses and make way for the government’s Build, Build, Build! infrastructure program. Here, big-ticket projects will be funded by international financial institutions.
With the people’s cry against the plunders of these projects, the Duterte government has now fully unleashed its state terror especially in the rural communities. Cases of human rights violations in Mindanao has reached an alarming number for over a year since Martial Law was declared in the region. As of December 2017, a total of 126 victims of extrajudicial killings (EJKs) killed by suspected state elements and paramilitary have been documented. Of this number, 110 were farmers and peasant leaders mostly coming from Mindanao.
EJKs and human rights violations against farmers are happening in the context of a strong peasant mass movement that is triggered by agrarian unrest brought about by land monopolies, land grabbing, corporate takeover of resources, and Duterte’s push for neoliberal policies.
It is in these times our duty to head Mindanao’s call for support.
The mission aims to: 1) Gather broad national support and solidarity for the campaign to Stop Killing Farmers and support to Filipino peasant’s struggles; 2) Document the extent of state-sponsored killings and other human rights abuses against farmers in Mindanao and the peasant and peoples struggles in communities affected by intense militarization; 3) Expose the situation of Filipino farmers under the Duterte administration particularly the violations on civil and political rights and socio-economic and cultural rights of farmers and to politically indict Rodrigo Duterte as an anti-peasant, anti-people President; 4) Gather broad support for the campaign to release farmers and peasant leaders illegally arrested and detained by the government; and 5) Use the information gathered from the mission as basis of a global campaign to Stop Killing Farmers, in support of the struggle of Filipino farmers against state-sponsored peasant killings and militarization of peasant communities.
Again, we would like to invite you and your organization/institution to participate in this activity and to share your commitment to forward the campaign to #StopKillingFarmers! Focus areas of the mission will be in Southern Mindanao, Northern Mindanao and Caraga regions.
For the people,
(sgd.) Antonio “Ka Tonying” Flores
Secretary General
Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas
