Hacienda Luisita Issue
The documentaries about Hacienda luisita are serve a lesson for all of us. While watching the documentary I feel pity to all farmers of hacienda luisita because they will fight for what they think is right. And I really admired them for their undying love for the land they needed for their lives. On January 22 1987 when mendiola massacre happen, some 10,000 farmers marched to ask the President Corazon Aquino to make good on her promise to implement a genuine agrarian reform program.
Mendiola Bridge was the center of many a protest in the country since the time of Mrs. Aquino’s. Its proximity to the Palace assured demonstrators that their calls might be better heard. But on that day, it was the sound of bullets firing and screams from the farmers that echoed in the streets outside the presidential palace. Within a few minutes, 13 farmers lay dead. At least 39 others sustained gunshot wounds, while 20 suffered minor injuries. The media called it “Black Thursday” but it went down in history as “The Mendiola Massacre. People died protecting the land they had treated as their own. Risking their lives and losing their lives for the land showed how their lives would be meaningless or impossible without it. Sadly, lives were lost before this was made clear to the public. But that’s not the end of the the tragedy. The workers launched their strike again on November 6, 2004, two unions led the strike. The strikers were forced to contend with the biggest number of police and military.
They stood their ground against tear gas and chemical-laced water that stung when it hit their skin. Many were hurt. At the final count, 72 were badly injured, 27 sustained gun shot wounds, and 110 were arrested by the police. By early evening, it was also discovered that seven were killed. It hurts for me to know that our own policeman killed there fellow Filipino. Eventually the policeman responsibility is to protect there fellow citizen but then they are the tool to lose the life of there countryman.
I hope that sooner the Cojuanco family would somehow realize that there are many Filipinos particularly the people in tarlac who are living around the Hacienda Luisita are striving to have even a part of land that they could till. May they also be reminded that if they have a huge part of land which they could no longer manage, then it should be given to poor people who need it the most. I hope someday the farmers of hacienda luisita can get the justice they looking for, and I hope between cojuanco and the farmers well talk peacefully to avoid losing life again.
