It was on January 22, 1987, when the members of KMP or known as the

Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas along with thousands of farmers

started camping at the Ministry of Agrarian Reform (MAR). To be
honest, before watching the said video about the Mendiola Massacre, I
didn’t have any idea about what I was about to watch. When I was on
the scene where they started shooting the poor farmers, I immediately
stopped the video since I was shocked and cannot handle that kind of
tragedy.

As a student who’s not aware of this kind of cruel incident, after

watching the video and researching some articles made me gain
knowledge and be aware of how cruel the people are in the
government. The only thing that the farmers wanted at that time was
to be heard, they were fighting and protesting for their rights regarding
their land reform to be able for them to provide a peaceful and
successful life for their families, but instead of paying attention and
making actions about the demands of the farmers, the government
turned deaf and blind to their complaints.

The government is the one who should be protecting the citizens from
violence, but sadly, our government before, even until now, still lacks
actions, justice, and accountability, especially for the poor. Thirteen.
Thirteen lives of those innocent farmers were shot which led to death
39 sustained gunshot wounds, and 20 farmers or citizens were suffering
from minor injuries. It saddened me knowing that they did not even
give compensation to the families and relatives of the victims it angered
me that no one was punished for the death of those innocent farmers.
This tragedy made me realize about our harsh truth that those who
have the position and power can do anything that they want to do with
the poor individuals.