CCTV9英语新闻：Dry spell sparks deadly protest in the Philippines

You might associate the Philippines with storms and floods. But so far this year, it hasn't rained nearly as much as it usually would in the country. In fact, the drought has gotten to a point where farmers staged a street protest to demand food. It took a violent turn last Friday.

 

22-year-old Darwin Sulang's family never thought his life would be the cost of their fight for survival. His father Ibao says it's been half a year since he's seen shades of green in his rice field - the effect of a dry spell caused by the weather phenomenon El Nino.

 

"It wouldn't be so bad if I can get jobs farming on other people's lands, but all the land here are dry. So there's been no way to make any money," Farmer Ibao Sulang said.

 

Their last resort, he says, was to ask for help from the government. So together with thousands of other farmers, Ibao and two of his sons, including Darwin, marched to the city of Kidapawan in the Southern Philippines, with demand for 15,000 sacks of rice.

 

As you can see, this is a very busy highway. Now for four days last week, farmers protested and blocked this whole portion of the highway. For those four days, police exercised maximum tolerance but on the fifth day, that was when all hell broke loose.

 

Violence erupted as police tried to break the picket line while protesters resisted. Stones were thrown at each other, people from both sides got mauled and then, there were gunshots.

 

"I think those were warning shots because as you can see, it happened after three policemen fell on the ground," North Cotabato governor Emmylou MEndoza said.

 

But the succession of shots fired - seen and heard in this video - and gunshot wounds sustained by some protesters, prove otherwise. In the end, dozens were wounded and at least two died, a bystander and Darwin.

 

The governor of the province says all this could have been avoided had the farmers listened.

 

"You don't have to go to a rally to get your rice. Even if there's no El Nio, you just go to the office of the social worker or the mayor or here in the office in the Capitol, look for the social worker, then you can get some help," MEndoza said.

 

If there was any rice subsidy, however, Ibao says it never reached his family.

 

"We were told the provincial government had sent a few kilos of rice for each family to our villages but that was only after we had demanded for it. Before then, nothing," Sulang said.

 

If it's any consolation though help has poured from the private sector and other local governments. Whether it's enough to tide them over until this drought ends, is a question only nature can answer.