Leftists stage protest rally outside a school in Arakan

KIDAPAWAN City, Cotabato Province, December 7, 2016 - The leftist group that organized the illegal farmers' protest rally at the middle of a busy highway here that ended in a violent police dispersal eight months ago is at it again.

They are gradually hauling in a few hundred protestors - mostly indigenous people and peasants - from around the province and adjacent areas for a planned 10-day mass action at the vicinity of the national government-runned Cotabato Foundation College of Science and Technology (CFCST) campus in Barangay Doruluman, Arakan town in this province that started mid-morning on Monday.

The protestors purportedly demand the removal of School President Dr. Sam Molao whom they accused of corruption and the distribution of the 3,000-hectare reservation of the University of Southern Mindanao (USM) in Kabacan town, this province to landless farmers.

Spearheaded by the Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP)-Southern Mindanao, the protestors also called on the withdrawal of army soldiers doing Peace and Development Outreach Program in the hinterland barangays and the disarming of the pro-government "Bahanis" (cultural guards) of the indigenous tribes.

A report indicated that organizers designed the protest rally to drag on for at least 10 days so they would be at its peak when the world celebrates the International Human Rights Day in December 10.

Rally organizers reportedly readied some 100 sacks of rice to feed the hauled protestors that include some young children and elderly people.

Aside from KMP, known personalities identified with Bayan Muna Party-List Group, Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU), Anak Pawis, Kalumaran and other organizations allied with the CPP-NPA-NDF were seen leading the protest action since it started about 10 o'clock in the morning on Monday.

Among them are KMP Southern Mindanao Chairman Pedro Arnado, Idoy Arnado, Glenda Saligan, Jerry Albormie, Joy Mirasol, a crtn Torres of KMP, self-proclaimed Lumad leaders Norma Capuyan, Isidro Indao and Sario Lamonday.

Also spotted among the protest leaders was Prof. Harris Sinolinding who have been eyeing to replace Dr. Molao as CFCST President whom he accused of corruption.

An intelligence officer at the Cotabato Police Provincial Office who refused to be named for obvious reason pointed out that these protest organizers were exactly same people behind the week-long illegal street rally that paralyzed traffic along the Davao-Cotabato Road in the last week of March which led to the violent police dispersal in the morning of April 1, resulting in the death of two persons and the wounding of more than a hundred others, mosty riot policemen.

The police and the military which have been monitoring the situation believed that the CPP-NPA-NDF in southern Mindanao rides on legitimate campus corruption issue and farmers' demand for land to toil in order to advance its own agenda which is to grab political power thru armed struggle, said police intelligence officer further claimed.

The mass action coincided with the third round of peace talks between the negotiating panels of the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GPH) led by Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III and the National Democratic Front-Philippines (NDFP) led by Fidel Agcaoili in Oslo, Norway this week primarily to hammer out a bilateral permanent ceasefire agreement which they originally hoped to ink in December 10.

All these unfolded as the CPP-NPA continued its arson rampage in SOCCSKSARGEN Region where its Far South Mindanao Regional Command (FSMRC) operates.

About 7:40 last night, some 15 to 20 armed persons who introduced themselves as NPA men burned two dump trucks and four payloaders -- one slightly -- at the Happy Living Development Corp. compound in the quarry site in Purok Aquino, Brgy. Concepcion, Koronadal City.

The armed men also stole two shotguns, a .38 caliber revolver and two units of cellphone from the two security guards on-duty and a computer monitor from the quarry firm's field office.

Last night's arson attack was the eighth incident since November 13 within the FSMRC area of coverage that includes a bigger part of the original Davao del Sur province, resulting in the damage of four passenger buses, seven heavy equipment and three dump trucks estimated to worth more than P100-million. (SPRINT NEWS)

A passenger jeepney rented by a leftist group hauls Lumads from a rural village in Cotabato Province to the site of a protest rally at the middle of a highway outside a Methodist Church compound in Kidapawan City on the last week of March. (File photo)

A photo taken by the leftist camp on the bloody police dispersal of the week-long protest rally at the middle of the national highway in Kidapawan City on April 1, 2016.

File photo of a previous protest rally held outside the provincial capitol compound in Amas, Kidapawan City.