THE MENDIOLA MASSACRE OF 1987
Monday, February 20, 2006 Manila Times UNSOLVED CRIMES Mendiola Massacre victims seek justice By Jeannette I. Andrade, Reporter ON January 22, 1987, thousands of farmers and their supporters marched to Malacañang to demand land reform. Before the end of day, 13 of them lay dead, shot by security forces in a bloody dispersal that is now remembered as the Mendiola Massacre. It was one of the early crises that confronted the Aquino government, installed less than a year earlier. Nineteen years after the incident, the massacre victims still cry out for justice, and no government officials or individuals have been convicted for the killings. The march to the Palace was the climax of an eight-day protest vigil of the peasant group, Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas, outside the Ministry of Agrarian Reform in Quezon City. The farmers were calling for landlords to give up parcels of their domain to small tenants in the spirit of land reform promised by President Aquino when she assumed office. On January 20 the Agrarian Reform minister, Heherson Alvarez, met with KMP President Jaime Tadeo to explore an amicable solution. Tadeo toned down his group‟s demand to a minimum implementation of the land reform program. Alvarez promised to bring Tadeo‟s demand to President Aquino at a Cabinet meeting the next day. Alvarez‟s promise was not good enough for Tadeo. On January 21 the farmers barricaded the agrarian reform office and barred employees from entering. To ease the tension, Alvarez met again with Tadeo and advised him to wait for the ratification of the 1987 Constitution the following month and allow the government to implement its Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program. Tadeo told Alvarez “genuine land reform is not possible under a landlord controlled Congress.” Alvarez suggested they form negotiating panels to meet the next day. Tadeo, however, was not willing to wait. He summoned his followers and told them: “We removed the barricades at the MAR on the wishes of the President. But she has to remove the barricades in Mendiola too because we will break through and blood will flow.”
On the midmorning of January 22, 15,000 marchers from the KMP, the Kilusang Mayo Uno, the Bagong Alyansang Maka-bayan, the League of Filipino Students and the Kongreso ng Pagkakaisa ng Maralitang Lungsod, converged on C.M. Recto Avenue near the foot of Mendiola Bridge. Hundreds of police and soldiers formed a solid wall on the bridge. The security forces were led by the Capital Regional Command chief, Ramon Montano. The large number of police and troops were called in after intelligence reports indicated that the KMP would be heavily infiltrated by communist rebels who plan to take over San Beda College and the Centro Escolar University. There were three lines of defense on Mendiola Bridge. The first was made up of officers from seven police stations in Manila and Chinatown detachment led by Col. Edgar Dula Torre, the Western Police District deputy superintendent. Dula Torre positioned his men, armed with aluminum shields, truncheons, and gas masks, at the intersection of Mendiola and Legarda streets. All were clad in khaki uniform and. The second line was 10 yards behind the first and was composed of the 61st and 62nd Integrated National Police Field Force from Fort Bonifacio under Maj. Demetrio de la Cruz. The third line, 10 yards behind the second, was composed of elements from the 1st and 2nd companies of the Marine Civil Disturbance Control Battalion, under Maj. Felimon Gasmin from Fort Bonifacio. The Marines were equipped with shields, truncheons and M-16 rifles. Behind the security forces four army trucks blockaded the bridge and two fire trucks with water cannons guarded each side of Mendiola. Farther behind the civil disturbance units were two mobile dispersal teams, each composed of two tear gas grenadiers, two spotters, an assistant grenadier, a driver and a team leader. A mobile communications van serving as the central command post was parked in front of the College of the Holy Spirit. Montano and other top police and military officials had planned to negotiate with the leaders of the march in the van. Any attempt at negotiations faded as the protesters surged toward the police lines at 4:30 p.m. There was an explosion, followed by the hurling of pillboxes, stones, and bottles. Protesters armed with steel bars, wooden clubs and lead pipes battled police officers who retaliated with truncheons. As the first line of defense was breached, shots rang out, and the protesters retreated to Recto Avenue. Two mobile dispersal teams, led by Lt. Romeo Paquinto and Lt. Laonglaan Gace, pursued the fleeing protesters toward Legarda Street, firing tear gas canisters as they did. Two other dispersal teams along with rifle-carrying policemen in civilian clothes proceeded to Liwasang Bonifacio to disperse protesters who had regrouped there. After the smoke cleared, 13 persons lay dead, 105 were injured, 39 of whom sustained gunshot wounds and 15 were arrested.
On the police and military side, three personnel sustained bullet wounds while 20 others had contusions and bruises. The clash at Mendiola on January 22, 1987, left 13 farmers dead: Danilo Arjona, Leopoldo Alonzo, Adelfa Aribe, Dionision Bautista, Roberto Caylao, Vicente Campomanes, Ronilo Dumanico, Dante Evangelio, Angelito Gutierrez, Rodrigo Grampan, Bernabe Laquindanum, Sonny Boy Perez and Roberto Yumul. Activist groups consider them martyrs who dedicated their lives to the struggle for land reform. Shaken, President Aquino, several hours after the bloody battle, ordered an investigation into the massacre. An incident reminiscent of her predecessor‟s ways would undermine the gains of the previous year‟s bloodless People Power Revolution, which her administration, so new, could illafford. She issued Administrative Order 11 the day after the massacre, creating the “Citizen‟s Mendiola Commission” (CMC) and designated retired Supreme Court Justice Vicente Abad Santos as head and retired Justice Jose Feria and Antonio Miranda as members. Under A.O. 11, the commission was created to conduct “an investigation into the disorder, deaths and casualties that took place in the vicinity of Mendiola Bridge and Mendiola Street and Claro M. Recto Avenue, Manila, in the afternoon of January 22, 1987.” Deadline extended twice Aquino ordered the commission to submit its findings on February 6, 1987. Later, the deadline was moved to February 16, 1987, under Administrative Order 13. Still, the commission sought another extension up to February 27 and got it through Administrative Order 17. The commission found that the mass action of the members of the KMP and other activist groups was not covered by a permit; the civil disturbance control units had been armed with .38-caliber and .45-caliber pistols as well as M-16 armalite rifles; security men assigned to protect the Western Police District, the Integrated National Police Field Force, the Marines, and other supporting units as well as security officers of the police and military commanders were in muftis; there was unnecessary firing; and the protesters carried “offensive weapons.” The commission also found that before the violence erupted, the marchers were incited by “incendiary and inflammatory utterances” delivered allegedly by their leader, who was quoted as saying: “Bubutasin namin ang barikada. Dadanak ang dugo. Ang nagugutom na magsasaka ay gagawa ng sariling butas. [We will break through the barricades. Blood will be spilled. The hungry farmers will make their own path.” The commission also noted the absence of negotiations between the two sides, the absence of barbed wire on the barricades set up by the joint police and military CDC units which was never explained by the ranking officials, and the ineffective use of the water cannons and tear gas. The commission learned that the water cannons were not used, because no order came from the higher-ups to use them, they were incorrectly positioned, and they were out of range of the marchers. The tear-gas canisters were hurled only after and not before the free-for-all, which could have prevented bloodshed.
Gunfire from both sides Curiously, the Abad Santos and the members of the commission found that gunfire had come from both sides. As a result of the findings, the commission recommended the prosecution of four unidentified uniformed men, shown in tapes and video footage firing at the marchers, and proposed for the National Bureau of Investigation to identify the men; the filing of violations of Batas Pambansa 880, or the Public Assembly Act of 1985, against the commissioned officers, the INP members carrying firearms, the ralliers carrying weapons, and against KMP leader Jaime Tadeo for inciting to sedition. Administrative sanctions were proposed against Capital Regional Commander Ramon Montano; WPD Supt., Brig. Gen. Alfredo Lim; WPD Deputy Supt., Col. Edgar de la Torre; INP Field Force cmdr., Maj. Demetrio de la Cruz; INP chief, Col. Cesar Nazareno; and the Marine Civil Disturbance Control battalion commander, Maj. Felimon Gasmin, for “failing to make effective use of skill and experience in directing the dispersal.” Finally, the commission recommended that the government compensate the victims of the socalled Black Thursday incident in Mendiola. But months after the commission submitted its findings, no word of compensation nor of lawsuits being filed was heard. This prompted the widows of the slain farmers to make on July 27, 1987, a formal demand for compensation, which was endorsed a month after by the Department of Budget Management. P6.5-million damage suit Impatient for results, the families of the victims as well as survivors of the “carnage” initiated on January 20, 1988, a P6.5-million damage suit against the Republic, represented by then-National Defense Minister Fidel Ramos; former Armed Forces of the Philippines Chief of Staff Renato de Villa; WPD Supt. Brig. Gen. Lim (now Senator Lim); Marines Commanding Gen. Rodolfo Biazon (now Senator Biazon); Marines commandant, Brig. Gen. Brigido Paredes; WPD Deputy Supt., Col. Edgar de la Torre; Capcom Col. Rogelio Monforte; and the INP chief, Col. Cesar Nazareno. The case was docketed under civil case number 88-43351 before the sala of Judge Edilberto Sandoval of Branch 9 of the Manila Regional Trial Court. The solicitor general moved to dismiss the case on the ground that the State is immune from any suit and that it can be sued only with its consent. The petitioners cited the findings of the Citizen‟s Mendiola Commission in opposing the motion to dismiss, claiming that the State had waived its immunity and that a dismissal would violate the Constitution and the International Law on Human Rights. WHILE the Mendiola massacre case was languishing in court, the House Committee on Human Rights recommended the speedy compensation of the victims. It turned out to be another fruitless move, compounded by the dismissal of the lawsuit on May 31, 1988.
Judge Sandoval of the Manila Regional Trial Court found in favor of the Solicitor General‟s argument and ruled that the State had filed no waiver. He denied the petitioners‟ motion for reconsideration, filed on August 8, 1988. The petitioners were promp--ted to seek the intervention of the Supreme Court, which on March 19, 1993, upheld en banc the decision of Judge Sandoval. The Court gave no weight to the petitioners‟ argument that there was an implied waiver of immunity from the suit on the recommendation of the Citizens‟ Mendiola Commission and through the public addresses made by then-President Aquino after the massacre. A preliminary venue It ruled that the findings of the commission on the indemnification of the victims is not automatically attached to the State, the commission being a mere “preliminary venue.” The ruling stated: “The Commission is not the end in itself. Whatever recommendation it makes can not in any way bind the State immediately, such recommendation not having become final and executory. This is precisely the essence of its being a fact-finding body.” The Court also said: “Whatever acts or utterances that then-President Aquino may have done or said, they are not tantamount to the State having waived its immunity from suit. The President‟s act of joining the marchers, days after the incident, does not mean that there was an admission by the State of any liability. In fact to borrow the words of petitioners, „it was an act of solidarity by the government with the people.‟ Moreover, petitioners rely on President Aquino‟s speech promising that the government would address the grievances of the ralliers. By this alone, it cannot be inferred that the State has admitted any liability, much less can it be inferred that it has consented to the suit.” Not a suit against the State Finally, the civil case filed by the petitioners before the Manila court did not qualify as a suit against the State. “[Although] the Republic in this case is sued by name, the ultimate liability does not pertain to the government. Although the military officers and personnel, then party defendants, were discharging their official functions when the incident occurred, their functions ceased to be official the moment they exceeded their authority,” the ruling stated. It further read: “The military and police forces were deployed to ensure that the rally would be peaceful and orderly as well as to guarantee the safety of the very people that they are duty bound to protect. However, the facts as found by the trial court showed that they fired at the unruly crowd to disperse them.” Finally, the Court said, “The inescapable conclusion is that the State cannot be held civilly liable for the deaths that followed the incident. Instead, the liability should fall on the named defendants in the lower court. In line with the ruling of this Court in Shauf v. Court of Appeals, herein public officials, having been found to have acted beyond the scope of their authority, may be held liable for damages.” Class action
In a final attempt to seek justice, the victims of the Mendiola massacre banded together under the Kilusang Enero Beinte Dos, or the January 22 Movement (KE-22) to file on August 28, 1998, a class action before a Quezon City court against former President Corazon Aquino and top officials of her government for what they claimed are the deaths of 19 farmers. They said that six more victims had died from injuries during the violent clash. The class action was led by 72 alleged victims from Tarlac, Nueva Ecija, Bulacan and Bataan, who reportedly waited 11 years to file the case because “they felt they could not get justice, because a few of the respondents remained in power after the Aquino administration.” However, the class action was also dismissed on the basis of the previous rulings in the case. It had apparently been doomed from the start. Until now, justice eludes the victims and their heirs, and the Mendiola massacre has joined the annals of history as one of the bloodiest chapters of the post-EDSA People Power Revolution.