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By RITCHE T. SALGADO
A group of sugar workers in Negros island was shocked to learn that the price of sugar in some parts of the country has reached a high of P60 per kilo amid news of an apparent crisis on the supply of the commodity.
By JANESS ANN J. ELLAO
For the farmers, peasants and indigenous peoples of Southern Mindanao, the past several years had been a period of great danger and violence as big mining companies encroach into ancestral and agricultural land, using the military to drive them away. Many peasant and Lumad leaders who opposed these projects have ended up dead and tortured.
By RONALYN V. OLEA
Since 2000, Alejandro Abaño could not go back to his farm in barangay Cabatianuhan, Alangalang, Leyte. In the first week of February that year, Abaño, together with some agricultural workers, was weeding the coconut land of his father when armed men pretending to be policemen came to their hut accusing them of being rebels. The armed men were allegedly hired by former Court of Appeals Justice Vicente “Cheng” Veloso, who claimed that he owned the land.
By RAYMUND B. VILLANUEVA
Despite the deplorable conditions, the evacuees were unable to return to their homes because of the climate of fear that prevails to this day. Although heavily militarized, reports of the continued presence of the Ampatuan clan’s private army still persist.
By MARYA SALAMAT
Among those who participated in the recent Lakbayan, the national peasant caravan, were members of the Aberlin Aetas, a tribe in Tarlac whose communities and livelihood are being threatened by a mega-dam project started by the administration of Cory Aquino and now being pursued by the Arroyo regime.
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By MARYA SALAMAT
The first time Rep. Luis Villafuerte went up and asked the farmers to meet with him in April, “he hoodwinked us to sign a paper which we thought was just an attendance sheet, but later turned out to be our supposed agreement to donate the lands we have been tilling to Green Earth,” members of Lingap Magsasaka, the farmers' group, told Bulatlat during the northern leg of the 10-day Lakbayan.
By RITCHE T. SALGADO
Farmers and fisherfolk groups in Negros Occidental have been holding protests outside the capitol to denounce the mounting harassments experienced by Negrense farmers and farm workers. They also denounce a series of moves by landlords to file common and trivial offenses against peasants who demand land reform.
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"Yes, I have chosen to seek refuge under the revolutionary movement, particularly with the Communist Party of the Philippines, New People’s Army and the National Democratic Front. This is the most logical choice on my part because these are the very organizations that can guarantee not only my protection from political killings but also, above all, freedom of the people from the oppressive grip of a reactionary fascist state. I am still breathing and fighting precisely because of this choice."
By GRACE S. UDDIN
Small farmers like Winifreda Cabisay have not benefited much from the government's agrarian-reform program. She was awarded land in 1996 but she has not been awarded a title to it and has had problems maintaining it. With the 10-day Lakbayan, Cabisay hopes that the issues that confront farmers like her will be heard.
The first-ever nationwide peasant caravan for land and justice, now on its fifth day in the Bicol region, has been facing harassment from the military since yesterday, Jan. 15. The caravan led by the Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP) and Anakpawis party list took off from Davao City on Monday. The farmers intend to reach Manila on Jan. 22, the 23rd anniversary of the Mendiola Massacre.
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Land Reform: Crisis in Sugarlandia