The militant Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP) welcomed the move of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) in behalf of the strikers of the Hacienda Luisita Inc., which appealed to President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to step into the dispute. 

According to Danilo “Ka Daning” Ramos, secretary general of KMP, “this is a good development but the president’s intervention should not be construed as the end all and be all of the matter. It can be remembered that concerned citizens like Governor Arthur Yap and Ed Pamintuan talked to her last November 13 in Clark Airbase, for her to intervene in the case and to stop the impending violent dispersal of the strike, but what she said was to implement the AJ, thereby causing the massacre on November 16,”

 Furthermore, as matters stand all the decisions of her administration have favored the Cojuangco-Aquino management eg. the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) assumption of jurisdiction (AJ) on November 10, 2004, the return to work order of the same agency on January 14, 2005, and the continuing whitewash of the case of the Hacienda Luisita massacre and the January 5, 2005 shooting incident,”

“The talks should strictly be between the Cojuangco-Aquino management and the strikers. The fascists from the DOLE, PNP, and AFP should be kept out of this for they will only cause the talks to collapse,” added the peasant leader.

“Justice and the demands of the workers should be served and confidence building measures can be done by both sides for the talks to push through. An example of which is that the troops of the PNP, AFP, paramilitary groups and the Cojuangco-Aquino goons should be pulled out of the hacienda. The return to work order can also be scrapped to facilitate the talks. The workers can lower their alert level if these are done and the tension would subside,” expounded Ramos.

“As we know there is an increasing covert and overt military/police and goons presence in the barrios inside the hacienda. They were deployed there to sow terror among the populace and to instigate what they call the creeping anarchy in the hacienda, to justify further deployment of troops. If the pull-out of this hired guns is not done then what good is there to talk about settling the issue, when the threat of a violent dispersal is always present?” ended the farmer leader. # # #

KMP - 25 January 2005