Hacienda Luisita seven years later

November 16, 2004 when 7 protesting farmers in Hacienda Luisita were massacred by state agents. Sugarcane workers from Hacienda Luisita were under strike due to the inhumane wage and working conditions in the Hacienda and the non-distribution of the land that was due to them decades ago by the powerful Cojuangco-Aquino family.


Seven years after the brutal massacre, perpetrators are still scot-free, Hacienda Luisita has not been distributed.

I joined the caravan from Manila to Hacienda Luisita to commemorate the 7th anniversary of the massacre and give tribute to the martyrs of the struggle for land and justice. It was my first time to go there and if I was not working (covering the activity for Tudla Productions), I could have integrated more with the farmers. Looking forward to go there again.

Recovery

I came from a family of cancer patients. My mother died because of leukemia (cancer of the blood), her sister also died because of colon cancer and now my father is recovering from his treatment because of lung cancer. So where does that leave me and my brother. I don't know. I just hope that later in life, we won't have cancer if we live a healthy life.

Unfortunately, I wasn't able to bring my (borrowed) camera with me to document my father's treatment. Now that I come to think of it, his treatment could have been my very first documentary photography project. But maybe I can start with his recovery to bring more hope to other cancer patients out there.

He's still thinner than before but he looks better compared to what he looked like while he was under treatment. He walks every morning (I think), drinks his herbal and fruit juices which he substituted to his medicines and watches a lot of movies. He hasn't been confined at the hospital for more than a month now. It's a good sign.

he insisted that his camera angle is his left side. all right, there it is.