By JUSTIN UMALI and JIAN MARTIN TENORIO
Bulatlat.com

On January 22, 1987, state forces under Corazon Aquino’s administration violently dispersed and murdered peasants fighting for genuine land reform on Mendiola Street.

Thirty-eight years later, its survivors from Southern Tagalog continue to lead the fight for justice and the same causes that led them to march to Malacañan.

Miriam Villanueva, daughter of a farmer from Lupang Ramos in Dasmariñas, Cavite, was only 17 years old when she joined peasants led by Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP) and their supporters to raise their demands to Aquino.

In a forum commemorating the massacre’s 38th anniversary entitled “Tigmak ng Dugo sa Paanan ng Mendiola” last January 24 at the University of the Philippines Los Baños, Villanueva shed light on her almost four decades of struggle for justice for the victims of the massacre.

“During that time, I was a daughter. Now, I’m a mother. However, the truth is, there is still no justice for the 13 martyrs. There is still no genuine land reform up to now. We continue to march to the streets to urge a department to implement genuine land reform,” Villanueva said in Filipino.

According to former Agrarian Reform (DAR) Secretary and KMP Chair Emeritus Rafael “Ka Paeng” Mariano, the farmers’ legitimate demands to Aquino for genuine land reform were met with gunshots by authorities.

“Our legitimate and just demands for the implementation of genuine land reform, including the distribution of land to farmers, zero retention of lands owned by landlords, and the halting of the collection of amortization on land, were greeted and met with the bullet of death where 13 Mendiola Massacre martyrs offered and sacrificed their lives to achieve the genuine land reform we have been fighting for,” Mariano shared in the forum via Zoom.

Centuries of landlessness

In the Philippines, land ownership has been the driving issue for the peasant class for hundreds of years. Spanish colonization brought with it an economic system of land ownership where the majority of farmlands were consolidated under encomiendas and, eventually, haciendas. The hacienda system created a land-owning class that lorded over the majority of small farmers in the country. 

Haciendas remained in the aftermath of the 1896 Philippine Revolution and subsequent American invasion and conquest. In 1905, the American colonial government instituted the Land Registration Act in 1902, rendering all old Spanish titles invalid and opening up lands to American businessmen and local landed principalia families across the colony.

Despite programs by subsequent Philippine governments, landlessness remains the largest problem for the majority of peasants in the country. KMP estimates that seven out of every 10 farmers remain landless. Peasant organizations have often criticized government land reform programs as inadequate or serving business interests.

During the Marcos dictatorship, Ferdinand Marcos Sr. signed two decrees, Presidential Decrees No. 2 and 27, which supposedly were meant to address the need for land reform. However, as Mariano pointed out, it only “benefited large landlords” owing to its exemptions on cash crops like tobacco and sugarcane.

“Large plantations became for export,” he said. “Even small parcels of tobacco were exempted from the program.” Other farms, he said, especially rice and corn fields, “shifted to farming other crops” to be exempt from PD27.

The land question was just as relevant post-Marcos, especially with Corazon Aquino as president. Aquino, who was both a member of the Cojuangco clan that owned Hacienda Luisita and married to the Aquino clan of Tarlac, was the exact opposite of the thousands of farmers who marched in Mendiola on January 22, 1987 demanding from the government a substantive program for land reform.

What happened since Mendiola? Despite the Aquino administration’s creation of the Citizens’ Mendiola Commission in response to the massacre, Mariano stressed that justice was never afforded to the victims and their families.

“For 38 years, from then up to now, there is still no justice for the 13 martyrs and victims of the Mendiola Massacre,” the former DAR secretary said.

Instead, genuine land reform remains a dream. “From Marcos Sr. to the present administration, there has been no genuine program for land reform,” said Mariano. He pointed out that the current administration’s New Agrarian Emancipation Bill only addressed “removing outstanding debt,” without solving the issue that “farmers still need to pay amortization with six percent interest with the Land Bank of the Philippines.”

Continuing struggles

Worse, those who continue to fight for genuine land reform are met with militarization and violence, especially in highly disputed agricultural lands. This is the case in the 372-hectare Lupang Ramos, which remains a hotbed for land-grabbing and state-imposed intimidation.

Villanueva serves as the secretary of Katipunan ng mga Lehitimong Magsasaka at Mamamayan sa Lupang Ramos (KASAMA-LR), an organization established in 2010 to consolidate the estate’s long-time residents and farmers in asserting their right to till the land.

Over the years, Lupang Ramos residents have had to contend with challenges from legal issues to violence and militarization in their struggle to assert their rights. “Sometimes it feels like we’re eating fear three times a day,” said Villanueva. “Fried in the morning, sinigang at noon, and adobo for dinner.”

Currently, there are soldiers encamped just behind Villanueva’s house, following a series of incidents last year where elements of the Armed Forces of the Philippines’ 2nd Infantry Division accused KASAMA-LR of being a “front organization” for the Communist Party of the Philippines.

Meanwhile, the local Dasmariñas government is insisting that checkpoints in Lupang Ramos are necessary owing to the Commission on Elections’ gun ban for the 2025 midterm elections.

Despite this, Villanueva said that her dedication helps her overcome her fears and the risks that come with militant struggle. “We have many ways to keep ourselves safe, but what we need is dedication,” she said. “We can’t do our task of arousing the masses if we let fear get the better of us.”

“We should overcome our fear because what we’re doing means life for those who will succeed us,” she added. That same dedication was what kept her going after surviving Mendiola. “I said to myself, I am a farmer’s daughter, and I cannot entrust the task of organizing my fellow peasants to the children of the landlords and the comprador bourgeoisie,” she said.

Justice for the victims of Mendiola, for Villanueva, will always be linked to the struggle for genuine agrarian reform. “Every time a farmer understands the reality of their situation, that, for me, is the justice that the government has failed to give to the 13 martyrs who gave their lives in Mendiola,” she said.

She also challenged the youth to continue the peasant struggle for genuine agrarian reform. “(The youth) is the next generation who will continue what we started,” she said. “(They) are the hope of the peasant class.” (RTS, RVO)