Kidapawan protest's death toll climbs to 3

One more person has been confirmed killed, bringing to three the death toll from the police's violent dispersal of protesters in Kidapawan City on Friday.

A report by GMA News stringer Malu Cadelina Manar said the third fatality was a civilian identified as Enrico Fabrica.

The report said that Fabrica, who was watching the violent dispersal of the farmers, either died from a heart attack or heat stroke.

The two farmers who died after being shot during the protest's dispersal were identified as Rogelio Daelto and virgilio Lumundang.

Violence broke out when policemen dispersed close to 6,000 farmers, who barricaded a highway demanding government assistance amid the effects of the El Niño phenomenon to their livelihood.

A report on Balitanghali said nine more farmers were injured during the dispersal. There were other reports that at least 90 farmers were hurt during the incident.

The police, meanwhile, said 40 of its members were hurt.

The Philippine National Police claimed the protesters started the violence.

Malacañang called for an "impartial investigation" into the clash.

"I believe it is fair for all of us to expect and require thorough, impartial investigation... Lives have been lost and we owe it to ourselves as a society and to the farmers themselves and people in the affected areas to find out what exactly happened and why it did lead to this," Presidential Communications Undersecretary Manuel Quezon III said in an interview on state-run Radyo ng Bayan.

Quezon also said there is no reason why people must die in order to be asking for assistance from the government.

Cotabato Governor Emmylou Mendoza said Friday the provincial government had been providing assistance to farmers affected by the El Niño-caused drought.

She said mayors had been distributing relief goods to farming communities.

"Our farmers deserve better than to have to suffer to receive assistance and aid. All the more so because the assistance and aid is there, they have to go through the process," Quezon said.

The province was placed under a state of calamity last January due to drought, that was compounded by rodent attacks on farmlands. —with a report from Jamie Santos/Virgil Lopez/ALG, GMA News