Kidapawan City Analysis

“Kidapawan City: Celebrating Life, Sustaining Peace, Envisioning Prosperity.” This was the theme of Kidapawan City in its 18th founding anniversary where the celebration highlighted the search for Kidapawan Hero or an individual, “who has exemplified class, dignity, and honor and live their lives in a manner that makes residents of Kidapawan proud and a true hero.” How ironic it is to think that the Lumads who had just searched for a hero are now making themselves true heroes by risking their own lives in fighting for what is due to them.
It has been 3 months since the North Cotabato was declared under the state of calamity. Hundreds of farmers were promised by the Government to be given 15,000 sacks of rice as calamity assistance. However, this seemed not to be true, for until now, 3 farmers were already dead,

In 1987, thousands of frustrated farmers marched to Malacañang demanding fulfillment of the promises made regarding land reform during the Aquino campaign, and distribution of lands at no cost to beneficiaries. At least a dozen protesters were killed in the violent dispersal. More were seriously injured. This is what happened during the Mendiola massacre. Conversely, the Luisita massacre began when government lenders obliged the Cojuangcos to distribute the land to small farmers by 1967, a deadline that came and went. Pressure for land reform on Luisita since then reached a bloody head in 2004 when seven protesters were killed near the gate of the sugar mill. These two massacres both happened under the administration of an Aquino. And now, the bloody dispersal of peasants in Kidapawan City follows on the list. “The Aquino administrations of the past and the present are accumulating grievous sins against the peasantry,” Zarate noted. Where is justice? Filipino citizens must vote for a leader who won’t deprive our rights with us. This May is the time for