“That eerie silence doesn’t make the setting peaceful”
(Thoughts after the struggle of peasants in Hacienda Luisita and other disputed farmlands despite downplayed by authorities)
By Kat Ulrike
It’s been long years passed since the attack dogs of the order unleashed its wrath against the farmers of Haceinda Luisita.
Reminiscent of Mendiola decades earlier, the farmers of Hacienda Luisita, whose clamour was land and justice, were met by bullets and slander as authorities fired their guns and killed them, what more slandering them by downplaying the massacre as an “incident” if not its victims as “misled” by “rebels” and “terrorists”. Such tragedy as one would say intensify further struggles for land and justice despite empty promises and “reforms” that are obviously meant trying placate people’s anger. However, that massacre was also reduced to some kind of “whataboutism” especially when those supporting Marcos and Duterte are using the tragedy as an excuse the atrocities brought by these two presidents. They even forgot that the Arroyo who supported Duterte (and Marcos Jr.) is the same Arroyo who tacitly supported the Cojuangco-Aquinos against the farmers in the name of “counterinsurgency.”
And this tragic incident cannot be forgotten, as with any other. Authorities will do their "best" to minimise and encourage people to "move on" from this bloody reality, but apologists will likely use the massacre as an illustration of what occurred under the Cojuangcos if not blaming the farmers as influenced by rebels. If one may ask, however, did the government or its defenders ever achieve justice beyond formal reforms? In reality, this isn't just happening at Hacienda Luisita; it's happening at other haciendas and plantations as well, where the owners work with the government to protect their interests. They would assert that they are improving farmers' lives and means of subsistence while simultaneously reducing their pay and threatening to arrest them on fabricated grounds or outrightly killed and branded as rebel casualties! Is this what the system claim as social justice many years ago? Being arrested or killed for asserting the right to till in their lands? The destruction of their crops by authorities, of forced evictions from their homes, even creating sham “cooperatives” to create an appearance of farmer’s support for the landlords and bureaucrats, and other methods all to evade redistribution to perpetuate interests while pretending having supported government’s efforts for agrarian reform.
But no! Despite attempts by the authorities to minimise or assign blame to those who struggle, the peasant struggle persists in every hacienda, plantation, and area of disputed land. The fight for land has been an integral part of freeing a nation from injustice, just like those who demand higher wages and the right to form unions, the need for price controls, the assertion of civil rights, and the assertion of national sovereignty. Call it idyllic or even dismiss it as irrelevant in the modern era, but given that agriculture is still the main industry in the Philippines and that farmers are still revolting and suffering, why dismiss the conflict as fantasy? Perhaps dismissing the struggle as a fantasy is part of the counterinsurgency narrative, as is authorities' demand for "industrial peace"—forcing workers to live with limited rights, meagre wages, and sweatshop conditions, or be outright dismissed. And words like Globalisation and Neoliberalism ring in the ears of feudal despots and corrupt bureaucrats alike as they accept the demands of multinational moneylenders—including fewer regulations on labour and environmental issues, which the people strongly oppose.
Whether in the farmland or in the factory, in offices or in the universities, so long as state terror prevails so is the right to rebel. For as folks seek truth from facts the dismissive antics of the order is deemed worthless. And events such as what happened in Hacienda Luisita and others (Hacienda Looc, Nene, Lupang Ramos, victims of “oplan Sauron”, etc.) would say that the people cannot just get contented on sham reforms as promised by some politicians but instead demand action as sovereigns. Again, authorities may dismiss various forms of actions as “subversion” while apologists cry wolf over the people’s struggle - be it the planting of vegetables during a “bungkalan” to that of supporting picketlines and protest marches demanding a just land redistribution and justice for those who killed for their beliefs.
But will the order’s brand of “peace” is itself peaceful, especially when the folk cannot forget those tragic events of the past? Much better if to call their “peace” as silence, but that eerie silence doesn’t make the setting peaceful. People may live their “normal lives” both at home, school, and in their workplaces, but that “normal life” is not that of what they wished for, but instead it is driven by fear and injustice, to which people may soon have enough and instead fight again against that pretentious “peace.” Will families just get contented on few bucks as prices soar? Of farmers being deprived their right to till? Or workers being booted out for demanding just wage and better working standards? Of people getting threatened for their right to free speech, press, assembly, and others enshrined in the constitution?