Team DailyPedia
Photos of Kidapawan City farmers reportedly being transported back to their hometowns have emerged online.
In a Facebook post made by a certain Ebs Unayan on Sunday, April 3, more than 200 protesters coming from barangay Tumanding, Datu Ladayon, and Meocan in the town of Arakan in North Cotabato were seen riding dump trucks of the provincial government to be transported back to their homes.
According to Unayan, these people were deceived by organizers and weren’t aware that they would be brought to a rally. Several reports claimed that most of the protesters were lured to join the protest on the pretence that rice that would be distributed at their destination.
[facebook https://www.facebook.com/ebrahim.unayan.3/posts/1661723170756312]
After several days of protest along a national highway, thousands of Kidapawan City farmers were dispersed by the local police on Friday, April 1. However, the dispersal resulted in a violent clash where three died and more than one hundred others were injured during the incident.
Amid the outrage over the incident, heads of the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) defended the local police and the local government of North Cotabato.
Stressing that the police exercised maximum tolerance, DILG chief Mel Senen Sarmiento alleged that the protest was organized and highly financed.
“Unang-una, we should know the facts. Sino ba nag-organize? Sino nag-finance? High finance ito ha, transporting people from other provinces. Dinala doon. Sino ang key leaders na nagsabi… these are things that should be subjected to the investigation. Who told the people na may mamimigay ng bigas? That is the very reason why marami ang sumamang iba. What is really the motive… ano ba talaga ang motive. We should determine that,” Sarmiento told reporters.
(First of all, we should know the facts. Who organized it? Who financed it? Transporting people from other provinces is high finance. They were brought there. Who are the key leaders here? These are things that should be subjected to the investigation. Who told the people that rice would be distributed? That is the very reason why many others joined. What is really the motive? We should determine that.)
