The militant Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP) joined the more that 20,000 people who escorted assassinated Tarlac City Councilor Abelardo Ladera to his final resting place in San Sebastian Cemetery, in Tarlac City. According to Ka Willy Marbella, spokesperson of the group, “Coun. Abel’s death would not be in vain because we will continue his fight and we will not stop till those who killed him have been meted justice,”

“The Northern Luzon Command’s (NOLCOM) claim that vigilante groups are behind the killing as well as the rumors that they are spreading that the good councilor malversed union funds, are obvious ploys to divert the issue. It is the NOLCOM and the Cojuangco-Aquino clans who would definitely benefit from the silencing of Ladera, because he is a staunch human rights defender and a supporter of the striking Hacienda Luisita farm workers. He is a mighty thorn on the side on the NOLCOM and the Cojuangcos, and they had him eliminated, to sow terror among his constituents as well,” added the peasant leader.

As for his part, Carl Anthony Ala, public information officer of the group,  “it is in this light that we are forming the “Justice for Abel, Justice for Luisita movement” and we will gather 100,000 signatures in a petition demanding justice for Ka Abel and all the martyrs of Hacienda Luisita,”

“We will exhaust all venues to have justice for Ka Abel, and the other Luisita martyrs and we will not stop until what they stood and died for has not been attained,” Ala ended. # # # 
 

KMP - 9 March 2005