Militant farmers ask: Where’s the rice?

KIDAPAWAN CITY — The Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP), the group that led the protest rally that ended in a bloody and deadly dispersal last month, has expressed dismay when thousands of rice allegedly coming from the Davao City government arrived in the province without them knowing it.

Gerry Alborme, spokesperson for KMP in North Cotabato, said they got to know about the delivery after they saw trucks loaded with about 7,000 sacks of rice that arrived from Davao City on Sunday.

“We saw the trucks loaded with rice arrive while we were having a protest rally to commemorate the 40th day of the death of Darwin Sulang. We asked the truck drivers and they told us the rice come from the Davao City local government,” said Alborme.

Sulang was a protester who was killed after a still unidentified policeman shot him at the height of the rally dispersal on April 1.

“But instead of the KMP getting all the coordination as to the rice distribution, our group was not even informed of the delivery,” he said.

On Sunday, the trucks proceeded to the towns of Magpet, Antipas, where the rice distribution was supposed to happen.

Alborme said they would ask the local government units of President Roxas, Antipas, and Magpet to distribute the sacks of rice to the farmers who joined the protest rally and barricades that started March 28 and ended in a bloody dispersal on April after they experienced El Nino.

He explained they wanted each of the 6,000 protesters receive at least a sack of rice.

On March 28, the KMP, together with other progressive groups and support organizations, blocked the roads and demanded at least 15,000 sacks of rice from the Cotabato provincial government.

“But instead of giving us the sacks of rice that we needed to survive the El Nino, cops started shooting some of us so to disperse us from the streets,” he stressed.