This has just made international news on aljazeera and is front page on most national papers here!
Mindanao has deteriorated in many ways over the past couple of years and this will only make the situation worse!

 

Sorry, I don't feel bad for them. Sounds to me like the farmers initiated the violence. If they were peacefully protesting there should be outrage but when you attack the police, who have absolutely no control over what aid Manila distributes, they you deserve to be shot.

 

Hmm.....
From wikipedia:

Was this fictional history 101?

So, you are saying it is OK for people to turn violent and even shoot at the local police and/or military during hard times or when the government in Manila doesn't help them out?

Note: I never said the people didn't have a right to be upset and protest......I'm just saying perhaps a few Darwin awards were given out that day:
Farmers: "Oh look, a bunch of guys in uniform with fully automatic rifles! I know, let's take a couple pop-shots at them with are 6-shooters to teach Imperial Manila a lesson! Herp-derp!" Pew pew.
Police:
Farmers: "WTF, they shot back at us?! Not fair! They violated our human rights!"

I'm sorry, but if you are going to try to take what you want or demand your government give you what you are due by violence/force.....well, you need to be a little smarter and more organized about it than these farmers were.

I have respect for both peaceful non-violent protests and violent uprisings as solutions to problems.....what I have absolutely no respect/sympathy for is when people use the violence method and then cry foul when they get hurt or killed. Life is full of choices.....and those choices always have consequences.

FYI: So in a way, I have more respect for the NPA and Muslim rebel/terrorist groups than I do these farmers. The NPA and Muslims have chosen their method and fully dedicated themselves to it. You don't hear these two groups whining to the media when they lose men fighting for them.

 

I completely agree they should have been given food aid.....and that should have happened long before any protests were even considered by the farmers. I also don't doubt that Manila has been largely ignoring this drought stricken province/town in Mindanao and I believe the farmers completely justified in being upset with Manila. The comment "desperate people take desperate actions" (which I completely understand): their level of poverty and desperation does not morally justify their violent actions (if it is true that they threw rocks/shot first). I have empathy for their actions, but no sympathy for the consequences of those actions. Just the same as if a poor kid holds me up at gunpoint and robs me to feed his family.....I completely understand the circumstances that led up to him pointing that gun at me, but I'm not going to have much sympathy if police happen to catch him in the act and shoot him.