Int’l fact-finding mission in Isabela exposes abuses, landgrabbing

By INA ALLECO R. SILVERIO
“Farmers are losing their land, their livelihood and their very lives because of this [bioethanol] project,” said, Dioni Yadao of Dagami San Mariano.
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By INA ALLECO R. SILVERIO
“Farmers are losing their land, their livelihood and their very lives because of this [bioethanol] project,” said, Dioni Yadao of Dagami San Mariano.

By INA ALLECO R. SILVERIO
“This is an issue of life and death for us, we will not be discouraged or ever dissuaded into giving up.”

By INA ALLECO R. SILVERIO
Farmers groups said the presence of more military forces in the Fort Magsaysay Military Reservation, which the farmers are claiming, will result in more human-rights violations against civilians. They also said that farmers will be facing renewed threats of eviction.

By INA ALLECO R. SILVERIO
A certification from the Sandiganbayan anti-graft court showed that “no criminal/civil case had been filed” against former agriculture secretary Cito Lorenzo and former agriculture undersecretary Jocelyn “Jocjoc” Bolante, in connection with the P728-million fertilizer fund scam. “Clearly, Gutierrez did not lift a finger to take action against the officials tagged in the fertilizer fund scam,” Danilo Ramos of farmers’ group KMP said.

By INA ALLECO R. SILVERIO
“The greed of the Cojuangco-Aquinos extends to Pangasinan. Now they are claiming that they own the lands that farmers have developed since the Spanish times,” said AMGL chairman Joseph Canlas.

By INA ALLECO R. SILVERIO
For Filipino farmers, filling a stage with actors and performers is hardly the best way to commemorate the culmination of more than a decade's fight against the Marcos dictatorship. "It would have been better if President Aquino does something worthy of EDSA 1 such as announce the surrender of the Cojuangco family's unjust claim on Hacienda Luisita," Willy Marbella of KMP said.

By INA ALLECO R. SILVERIO
A farmers’ group believes that this is a case of landgrabbing and speculation in anticipation of and preparation for the construction of the Tarlac-Pangasinan-La Union Expressway (TPLEx). The group said that as the market value of lands around the superhighways are expected to skyrocket, business firms are trying to takeover farmlands even if it meant displacing farmers.
Central Luzon farmers on Feb. 16 trooped to the House of Representatives to attend the Committee on Agrarian Reform’s public hearing of House Bill 374 or Genuine Agrarian Reform Bill (GARB).
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