Worse than Noynoy

President Duterte is worse than former President Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III in suppressing the Alyansa ng Manggagawang Bukid sa Asyenda Luisita (Ambala). Ambala is a founding member of Unyon ng mga Manggagawa sa Agrikutlura (UMA) in 2005, and most of the latter’s leading officers from its earlier years up to 2015 were from Hacienda Luisita including from Ambala.

According to Ariel Casilao, UMA’s vice chairperson, Duterte’s administration is worse because it has no democratic pretensions, unlike its predecessor. At present, added Casilao, the military particularly its 3rd Mechanized Infantry Battalion forced the surrender of 120 members of Ambala, including its former chairperson, Florida “Pong” Sibayan, allegedly to withdraw their support to the Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army (CPP-NPA).

The military also alleges that Ambala has an alliance with the rebel group to mobilize its members against the government. This was never done by Aquino. He nevertheless suppressed the rights of Ambala members through other means.

He instructed the Department of Agrarian Reform

(DAR) to distribute the lands through the “tambiolo,” which did not respect areas already being cultivated by the farm workers through their bungkalan and in order to create friction among agrarian reform beneficiaries (ARBs) by giving out the lands already being cultivated by other beneficiaries.

It was only during Noynoy’s time that several violent incidents, including several arrests and trumped up charges, were done against Ambala members who asserted their rights on lands that were already being cultivated. This included Tadeco-owned lands in Barangays Balete and Cutcut, which forced the government to include these in their land reform program.

However, these are yet to be distributed by the DAR. To a certain extent, the military is right in saying that there is still the problem of non-land distribution in Hacienda Luisita.

Essentially, the Duterte government is using the military to intimidate Ambala and its members from asserting their rights to these lands. It is not different from the Aquinos who he said spared the land from distribution.