A QUAKE and three simultaneous burning by the New People's Army (NPA) on an agribusiness magnate business establishment shook Davao City last Saturday.
Until now quakes and fire on this incident fills public opinion, an incident that a friend said made opinions "sharply forked" on the complexities and questions of the land problem, governance and revolution.
If we break down the issue, the attack stems from the NPA wanting to exact "punishment" on Lapanday, a company owned by the Lorenzo family who holds vast properties. The NPAs listed stories of land-grabbing and abuse of the Lapanday company and its security in harassing and attacking farmers.
Recently, the Lapanday Foods plantation defied an order by the Department of Agrarian Reform to install some 150 Madaum agrarian reform beneficiaries to their area in Madaum, Tagum City. Some 700 armed guards threatened the farmers and agrarian secretary Rafael Mariano.
Regardless of such justification, the public sees the other consequences of the attacks as primary, such as a fish vendor being hospitalized in a coma after being hit by a detonated explosion, and other Lapanday workers in the burned establishments will reportedly lose their jobs.
Some will say "you can't answer an injustice with an action that creates more injustice" or "they have principles, but they have gone too far."
Some also take the discussion further. Two professor friends share the same point that a revolution is "terrible" as it acts to take back what has been exploited, and they cite the 1896 revolution and its bloody attacks on frayles to take back their land.
Another point is that such actions are consequences of the failure of governance. As another friend point out: "Rather than asking the NPAs why, why can't we ask the government authorities… when (the agrarian reform beneficiaries) asked for help, when they begged for assistance, when they were crying out loud just for us to hear their voices. They were killed after so many years of struggling against Lapanday. The police could not even act for them."
This is the point of contention, the police failed. Oligarchs like Lorenzos behave like they are above the law and lord over their lands with force. What choice do farmers who want their share have? Which is more violent, the structural violence that constricts farmers and the poor or the violent actions they respond with?
The answers may be plenty, and the discussions and debates may continue. But the bottom line is what can be done?
As of this writing, the Marbai workers are actually in Mendiola since Labor Day, asking President Duterte to intercede to bring them to their land.
Duterte also said during the Labor Day dialogue here in Davao that oligarchs who feel they are above the law had to watch out, as he called workers and the poor to go and occupy back these lands.
Some solutions are indeed extreme. But President Duterte understands how it is to be poor. He understands class war. It's real, it's hard, it's complicated. It's confrontative. But it has to be done. Perhaps we should too.
“When the rich rob the poor, it’s business. When the poor fight back, it’s called violence.” - Mark Twain
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