The Mendiola Massacre

Episode two of our second season tells the story of the Mendiola Massacre.After a tumultuous time under the Marcos regime, Filipinos looked to Corazon Aquino for a new chapter in post-colonial Philippines. For a lot of people, it was a time to heal and rebuilt and for some it was time to continue advocacies that were silenced and quite literally killed off under the Marcos dictatorship.One of the groups that suffered horrendous injustice under Marcos was the farmers. They had hoped that with the newly-elected president, they would finally be heard and genuine agrarian reform could finally take place.However, it became clear quite quickly that even this new president, who also happened to be a land-owning individual, was hesitant to commit to genuine land reform and land redistribution for the poor farmers who had been fighting for this for decades. On the 22nd January 1987, almost a year after the monumental 1986 EDSA Revolution of Peoples Power that ousted Marcos, farmers and their supporters marched towards Malacañang Palace to bring their grievances directly to President Aquino.Before they could reach the Palace, they were met with police forces on Mendiola Bridge. What happened next would serve as a watershed moment in Filipino history to highlight that as long as the executive and even the legislative branches of government are comprised of landowners and landlords, there can never be genuine land reform and violence will always be a possibility.Sources used to research this episode can be found here:https://lagimpodcast.podcastpage.io/blogMy podcast recommendation of the week is Dark Theory, hosted by the smart and spooky Aldwin. Check out Dark Theory on Instagram here:https://www.instagram.com/darktheoryphSupport the show (https://www.patreon.com/lagimpodcast) Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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