Stop the Attacks on Farmers! End Duterte’s Reign of Terror!

The Malaya Movement strongly condemns the series of massacres and politically-motivated assassinations across the Philippines, particularly in Negros and Bukidnon. We stand in solidarity with the grieving families and the rest of the Filipino people and in their call for justice and held a week of actions across the U.S. calling on Filipino people to protest the Duterte regime’s reign of terror. We hold the Duterte regime accountable for turning the countryside into killing fields and targeting unarmed civilians. We call for the immediate and independent investigation on the killings of farmers and human rights defenders.  The spate of attacks in Negros, orchestrated by the government’s Oplan Kapanatagan, Oplan Sauron and Duterte’s Memorandom Order 32, has caused 48 victims of extrajudicial killings since the beginning of this year. With the deployment of more AFP to the Visayas and Bicol regions to, according to the government “suppress lawless violence and acts of terror,” Duterte has declared war on the people. Many of the victims were farmers and from the poor as well as human rights defenders such as lawyer Ben Ramos, who was the lawyer for the Sagay 9, a massacre of 9 rural farmers. How can the government try to cover its tracks by saying these attacks are caused by the New People’s Army (NPA) while at the same time claiming the victims themselves to be NPA? Oplan Kapanatagan in combination with the Executive Order 70 (EO 70), which institutes a “whole of nation” approach shows the Filipino people that all Duterte cares about is death and destruction, a type of fascism that only dictators enjoy. Martial Law in Mindanao is still in full effect with no end in sight, and this military move by Duterte in effect places the whole country under martial law without declaring it as such. In light of this, the Malaya Movement reiterates our call for the immediate suspension and withholding of all U.S. tax dollars to the Duterte regime. The continuing sending of these tax dollars amount to complicity and if not outright support for the human rights crisis in the Philippines. Likewise, we call on the Filipino people to continue to protest against these killings. Let us turn our sorrow into courage to fight back against the Duterte regime and end his reign of terror.  ###