Senate to probe Kidapawan incident in Davao City on Thursday

A Senate committee will hold a public hearing on last Friday's violent dispersal of protesting farmers in Kidapawan City later this week.

In a statement Monday, Sen. Koko Pimentel, head of the Committee on Justice and Human Rights, said the hearing will be on Thursday at the University of Southeastern Philippines (USEP) in Davao City.

"We are holding the hearing in Davao City because it is one of the nearest places to the Kidapawan incident," Pimentel said. "Some of the invited resource speakers belong to the protesting farmers, who are too injured to travel all the way to Manila."

He will be joined by Senate Majority Leader Alan Peter Cayetano, a vice presidential candidate in the May 9 elections.

"In the Senate hearing, we will listen to all parties present. But most importantly, we hope to get to the bottom of this issue and render justice to all the victims of this unnecessary use of violence," Pimentel said.

The hearing was organized after two farmers and a civilian were killed and hundreds others were injured in the dispersal.

Around 6,000 farmers blocked the Kidapawan Highway to ask the government for rice rations after El Niño dried up their farms and killed their crops, leaving their families penniless and hungry. —Trisha Macas/KBK, GMA News