Say you want a revolution...

Last June 5, a little past 11 in the evening, Rene Peñas, a Sumilao farmer and a leading advocate for farmer’s rights in the country, was ambushed and gunned down in Malaybalay City. According to newspaper reports, he was coming home from a get-together, celebrating the passage of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program Extension with Reforms (or CARPER) when shots were fired at the motorcycle he was riding. He was with his nephew and another farmer. Realizing that he was the target, Peñas shouted to his companions to run away while crawling towards the opposite direction. He was then shot repeatedly until he was dead.

Peñas was one of the farmers who, in 2007, walked from Bukidnon to Manila for two months, a distance of about 1,700 kilometers to ask for their rights as farmers to their land. A decade before this, he had already participated in a 28-day hunger strike with his fellow farmers in front of the Department of Agrarian Reform with the same plea.

A farmer since birth, Peñas was elected the national vice president of Pakisama, a farmers’ organization in the country, last March. His efforts were not limited to Sumilao and he helped various farmers’ groups both at the local and national level.

He was already back home in Sumilao when he heard that the CARPER Extension had been passed. In an interview, his son Noland said that his father exclaimed, “Nidaug na ta!” or “We have won!”

The day he was gunned down and murdered, he still did not own the land he had tilled and worked on for decades. Despite all the laws passed and legal battles won, all the compromise deals offered, considered and then declined, the struggle that Peñas ultimately died for is still ongoing. Though Congress has passed the law, it remains to be seen if it will actually be implemented. If we look at our country’s history in agrarian reform, it’s highly unlikely. (If anything, only one of our presidents, namely Diosdado Macapagal, seemingly had a proper Agrarian Reform program but one that sadly would’ve taken two terms as chief executive to implement.)

“Ka Rene” as those around him called him say he was a good-natured man, who was full of humor and cheer. He was also a patient man obviously but who channeled his efforts in a legal struggle. It sustained his fellow farmers and those who came out to help their cause. All the bureaucratic corruption and political maneuverings to thwart the Sumilao farmers would understandably drive others to consider violence and extra-legal means. Amidst all the awful news of summary killings, constituent assemblies and H1N1 virus, it is the brutal execution of Peñas that somehow stands out as the most tragic because it was intended to kill hope. In our democracy, in our government, and in ourselves. Anyone who suggests that advocacy campaigns, wearing T-shirts or convening constituent assemblies is anything but a cosmetic solution should consider that. Rethink.

Why aspire to be Ninoy when Ka Rene was just here?

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