It has been 18 years since the bloody massacre in Hacienda Luisita. But the state’s brutality and its blood debts are still imprinted on the nation’s collective memory. Seven farmers have given up their lives to demand an increase to their alms-like P9.50 wage from the said azucarera. In the following months, eight more individuals who were known supporters of the farmers were also killed.

From the very beginning, land struggle has always been swathed with the blood, sweat and lives of scores of farmers who had aspired getting it back from the hands of the few. The ruling elite has always violently and forcefully prevented this from happening as their control and monopoly over it are the bases of their reign upon the current system. From their long struggle for land, the farmers have fully understood that class struggle can never be resolved peacefully. They have understood that the change that they desire will not be borne out of simple request nor protests in streets.

The Hacienda Luisita Massacre serves to remind the nation of this truth. Just like the numerous massacres and killings of farmers, this bitter experience is overwhelmingly full of lessons. Lessons that compel the peasants of this generation to remain true to their promise to continue fighting for their right to land. They are conscious of the need and justness of the armed struggle as weapon and defense of the oppressed classes. Many among them have decided to be valiant fighters and commanders of the New People’s Army.

On the 18th anniversary of the Hacienda Luisita massacre, PKM-Bikol calls on all peasants who have had enough of this system that kills them. It is time for them to uprise and claim the lands and rights that should have been justly in the hands that till and nurture it. It is high time to take up arms and join the people’s democratic revolution!