1937–1941 Pampanga peasant unrests

1937 – 1941 Pampanga peasant unrests
1937 – 1941 Pampanga peasant unrests
Part of Great Depression in the Philippines
Date	1937 – December 1941
Location	Pampanga
Caused by	Economic downturn and massive unemployment following the Great Depression
Methods	Demonstrations; Civil unrest; Arson; Looting; Assassinations; Terrorism;
Resulted in	Deployment of the Philippine Army and the Philippine Constabulary; Suppression of politicians with socialist backing; Illegalization of labor strikes; Ban on peasant organizations meeting;
Parties
Commonwealth of the Philippines Department of Labor; Court of Industrial Relations (CIR); Cawal ning Capayapan (Knights of Peace); Philippine Army; Philippine Constabulary;	Sugar central workers, sugar and rice tenant farmers; Aguman ding Maldang Talapagobra; Partido Komunista ng Pilipinas (PKP); Popular Front (left-wing faction); Kalipunang Pambansa ng mga Magsasaka sa Pilipinas (KPMP); Pasudeco Workers' Union;
Number
14,000+ Cawal ning Capayapan men (1940); 700+ Philippine Constabulary troopers (June 1938 – March 1939); Additional 200+ Philippine Constabulary troopers (1941);	20,000+ labor strikers (1939);
Casualties
Death	Unknown
Injuries	Unknown

Since 1937, there were series of peasant-led violence, civil disorder, and terrorism in Pampanga as a result of falling sugar prices and worsening economic conditions in the Philippine Islands during the Great Depression. The demonstrations started as formal protests in the early 1930s directed towards the Department of Labor, later fuelling into violence between sugar landlords and tenants reaching its peak in 1939.

After the killing of a migrant worker in Pampanga in 1939, violence intensified with rice tenants joining the sugar workers in the chaos. By February 1939, President Manuel Quezon traveled to Pampanga to calm the violence but was unheeded. Violence continued until the eve of the Japanese invasion in the Philippines.