[OPINION] In tribute to Ericson Acosta, poet and freedom fighter

“Ericson did not deserve to die in the way that he did – defenseless, butchered like a pig.”

Ericson Legaspi Acosta was a consultant for the National Democratic Front of the Philippines , and I am proud that he was my friend.

Was he killed in a military encounter? No, he was not. He was killed in the middle of the night after he was captured unarmed by members of the 94th and 47th Infantry Battalion-Philippine Army. Instead of being taken captive as a war prisoner, a political prisoner as he should have been had soldiers observed International Humanitarian Law, he was, according to reports, stabbed and hacked to death.

What was Ericson doing in Negros? The region has suffered through a century of violence, and this continues as farmers and farmworkers struggle against hacienda owners to reclaim the lands stolen from them. The last six years have seen more farmers killed with the implementation of Memorandum Order 32 signed by former president Rodrigo Duterte.

This is the context wherein Ericson worked. He did research and documentation on the lives of farmers and farmworkers and the enormity of their suffering under the hacienda system and the government’s failed Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program . The strength of his will and intelligence he poured into writing about the extreme social injustices the farmworkers were subjected to daily.

The NTF-ELCAC and the AFP are disparaging all the tributes for Ericson and all that he has achieved in his lifetime. He was a student activist and leader who became a peasant advocate and a freedom fighter and an award-winning writer. There is nothing the military can do to change the truth that Eric’s life was one of meaning and that he has made great contributions to the cause of national liberation.

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