Despite a mass march on Friday following a violent response from state security forces that left at two people dead last week, the Filipino government "has shown no urgency to respond to the imminent concern of the farmers." (Photo: Loi Manalansan)
History is important for the understanding of current events in the world. It is in the context of 'patterns of behavior' or 'sequence of events' that one is able to view with accuracy the news of today. Much in the manner a psychiatrist would analyze a patient, one can look at world history and national events to determine what is behind the news.
When one thinks of the history of United States foreign policy as it relates to South American and Central American countries, especially Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador, one can easily extend the perspective of that history to the western Pacific and include the Philippines.
As has been proven repeatedly, the Unites States will support the most cruel and brutal treatment of citizens by governments we favor, usually governments we have installed. In the Philippines, history starts with a famous massacre where an American general ordered his men to kill everyone above 10 years old.
Today, a severe food and water crisis is fast spreading in Mindanao and the rest of the Philippines.
More than a thousand people on Friday converged at the Mendiola Peace Arch in Manila following on from the tragic events at Kidapawan in the island of Mindanao on 1st of April, when two people were killed during a peaceful protest by farmers requesting government support following severe drought in the region.
Suffering the brunt of the ongoing El Niño, just over a week ago, some 6 thousand farmers assembled along a national highway in Kidapawan to demand 15,000 sacks of rice and financial subsidies promised to them six months earlier by the provincial government. In response, government officials offered a meager 3 kilos of rice for each farmer to last them for 3 months.
The protesters held their ground despite the threat of forcible dispersal from security forces. The three-day stand-off was broken on April 1 when forces of the Philippine National Police fired at the farmers leaving two farmers dead, hundreds injured and at least 70 arrested and detained.
More than a thousand people on Friday converged at the Mendiola Peace Arch in Manila following on from the tragic events at Kidapawan in the island of Mindanao on 1st of April, when two people were killed during a peaceful protest by farmers requesting government support following severe drought in the region.
Suffering the brunt of the ongoing El Niño, just over a week ago, some 6 thousand farmers assembled along a national highway in Kidapawan to demand 15,000 sacks of rice and financial subsidies promised to them six months earlier by the provincial government. In response, government officials offered a meager 3 kilos of rice for each farmer to last them for 3 months.
The protesters held their ground despite the threat of forcible dispersal from security forces. The three-day stand-off was broken on April 1 when forces of the Philippine National Police fired at the farmers leaving two farmers dead, hundreds injured and at least 70 arrested and detained.
The Philippines are the most pro-American country in the world. The United States is undeniably the Philippines' closest ally in the world, Philippines being one of United States' oldest Asian partners and a close strategic major non-NATO ally. The United States has consistently been one of the Filipinos' favorite nations in the world, with 90% of Filipinos viewing the U.S. and 91% viewing Americans favorably.
Spanish rule ended in 1898 with Spain's defeat in the Spanish–American War. The Philippines then became a colony of the United States.
American rule was not uncontested. The Philippine Revolution had begun in August 1896 against Spain, and after the defeat of Spain in the Battle of Manila Bay began again in earnest, culminating in the Philippine Declaration of Independence and the establishment of the First Philippine Republic. The Philippine–American War ensued, with extensive damage and death, and ultimately resulting in the defeat of the Philippine Republic.
American rule was not uncontested. The Philippine Revolution had begun in August 1896 against Spain, and after the defeat of Spain in the Battle of Manila Bay began again in earnest, culminating in the Philippine Declaration of Independence and the establishment of the First Philippine Republic. The Philippine–American War ensued, with extensive damage and death, and ultimately resulting in the defeat of the Philippine Republic.
Ferdinand Marcos was President of the Philippines from 1965 to 1986. His brutal US-backed rule as dictator using martial law lasted until the 'People Power Revolution' which removed him from power. He was advised by Ronald Reagan to step down and he fled to Hawaii with his decadent lifestyle and billions of dollars.
The background of how Central America - and especially Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador — came to be countries of such violence, corruption, insecurity and relative poverty. It also overlooks a significant U.S. role in the region that’s often been marked by dishonorable intentions that has its roots in early 20th century American imperialism, the brutality of zero-sum Cold War realpolitik, and the insanity of a ‘drug war’ policy that almost every major U.S. policymaker agrees has been a failure and that, to this day, incorporates a significant U.S. military presence.
Guatemala’s four decades of civil war, which crested in the 1980s with the wholesale massacre of highland Mayas, began with the CIA’s overthrow in 1954 of Jacobo Árbenz, a democratically elected socialist. Though his relatively modest goals for Guatemala included land reform and wider education, U.S. president Dwight D. Eisenhower deemed Árbenz too communist for comfort, and the Dulles brothers of United Fruit easily dispatched the CIA to overthrow Árbenz.
Guatemala’s four decades of civil war, which crested in the 1980s with the wholesale massacre of highland Mayas, began with the CIA’s overthrow in 1954 of Jacobo Árbenz, a democratically elected socialist. Though his relatively modest goals for Guatemala included land reform and wider education, U.S. president Dwight D. Eisenhower deemed Árbenz too communist for comfort, and the Dulles brothers of United Fruit easily dispatched the CIA to overthrow Árbenz.
Honduras, the original ‘banana republic,’ found successive governments of the early 20th century co-opted by U.S. corporations (and the U.S. department of state) to secure tax-free concessions, restrictions on labor freedom and development of exclusive roads and railways for banana plantations based on the Honduran coast, culminating in the 16-year rule of U.S.-backed dictator Tiburcio Carías Andino in the 1930s and 1940s. Though Honduras has held regular elections since 1981, the 1980s featured paramilitary death squads that routinely targeted dissidents, and similar right-wing forces continue to harass and murder journalists, labor activists and leftists today. In 2009, a military coup ousted leftist president Manuel Zelaya when he attempted to relax the prohibition on reelection.
Today, even though U.S. states are beginning to experiment with new approaches to drug laws, including marijuana legalization and an emphasis on treatment over incarceration, U.S. drug policy south of the border remains locked in a 1980s military-style mindset.
You might have expected this kind of militarized approach to the ‘drug war’ a generation ago — if it’s a scandal that U.S. policymakers are only now reconsidering the harsh incarceration regime of non-violent drug users, it’s a national shame that U.S. military assets are still being deployed to perpetuate a cycle of violence throughout Latin America that clearly hasn’t eradicated the illegal drug trade. The target of U.S. helicopters has moved from Bolivia and Perú to Colombia to México and, now, to Central America with cruel and brutal results.
You might have expected this kind of militarized approach to the ‘drug war’ a generation ago — if it’s a scandal that U.S. policymakers are only now reconsidering the harsh incarceration regime of non-violent drug users, it’s a national shame that U.S. military assets are still being deployed to perpetuate a cycle of violence throughout Latin America that clearly hasn’t eradicated the illegal drug trade. The target of U.S. helicopters has moved from Bolivia and Perú to Colombia to México and, now, to Central America with cruel and brutal results.
Back to the Philippines, the Mindanao farmers and indigenous peoples communities would have been in a stronger position to weather the effects of El Niño if their watersheds and water systems had not been damaged. The provinces badly hit by El Niño to date have one thing in common – most of their watersheds are severely compromised due to unregulated expansion of agribusiness plantations, mining operations and coal fired power plants.
The majority of the Philippine population is comprised of farmers who remain landless. In practice this means that they are getting an unjust share from their agricultural yields. Landlords and businesses control their inputs of production with high interest rates. Services that should be provided by the government for the farmers are being privatized such as the irrigation systems which come with extra fees to the farmers. This, compounded with the absence of a genuine agrarian reform program, leaves the farmers with low income and high debts. The prevalent set-up between the farmers and landlords has made it even harder for the struggling farmers to prepare and respond to the climate crisis.
Despite this the government has shown no urgency to respond to the imminent concern of the farmers. The farmers are now suffering from intense hunger and an immediate solution is necessary in the form of food aid. Unfortunately as a consequence of the local government’s ineptitude, these farmers were instead dealt violence rather than the support they so desperately need.
State terror and violence, as a response to disasters, is a reflection of the government’s criminal negligence towards the farmers. Violence is used to silence protest.
Study the history of the United States itself and one sees a consistency... and that's the truth !!!
Despite this the government has shown no urgency to respond to the imminent concern of the farmers. The farmers are now suffering from intense hunger and an immediate solution is necessary in the form of food aid. Unfortunately as a consequence of the local government’s ineptitude, these farmers were instead dealt violence rather than the support they so desperately need.
State terror and violence, as a response to disasters, is a reflection of the government’s criminal negligence towards the farmers. Violence is used to silence protest.
Study the history of the United States itself and one sees a consistency... and that's the truth !!!
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