“Holding Villanueva and his lackeys accountable for their violations of human rights and agrarian reform policy is especially timely, given that Ferdinand Marcos, Jr. had nothing worthwhile to say about human rights and food sovereignty in his State of the Nation Address.”
The plight of Hacienda Tinang farmers brought to mind how land reform and due support continue to evade Filipino farmers.
“Deprived farmers are faced with violent reprisal when they assert their rightful claim to land. This exposes CARP as instrumental to landlords while the majority of our farmers remain landless, poor, and hungry.”
Farmers have been reaping debts but they get no sufficient aid from the Duterte administration.
The stories in Sitio Compra and Sitio Buntog share many sad parallels. They are both stories of land-use conversion and violence against the nation’s dwindling agricultural communities. While peasants clamor for land reform, the Philippine government has deemed land-use conversion by large corporations as an acceptable substitute.
“The only thing we can pass on to our children is our land. We already lost everything else. We have nothing left to lose. Why should we be afraid?”
Reports from Samahan ng Mamamayang Nagkakaisa sa Sitio Buntog (SAMANA-Buntog) claim that Buntog is being “fenced off”, and goons are destroying farm plots they come across. “They’re even stealing fruits from our trees,” said Jojo de Leon, SAMANA-Buntog spokesperson, in a text message.
Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP) said that administrations may have changed but not the conditions of majority of the Filipino. They belied claims of the so-called “Duterte legacy,” saying that farmers are being killed and many Filipinos are still in dire poverty.
“Once totally fed up, farmers could actually lead a peasant uprising in the countryside that is directed at Duterte,” said Danilo Ramos, chairperson of Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas.
Fourteen years after the Hacienda Luisita massacre, farmers still fight for their land. The Cojuangco-Aquinos have regained control of the vast sugar plantation with the aid of the Department of Agrarian Reform, military and police.
Government data showed that farmers, fishermen and children of poor families posted the highest poverty incidence. By RONALYN V. OLEA Bulatlat.com MANILA – For many years, Filipino farmers have considered October as Peasant Month, culminating every 21st, the anniversary of the promulgation of the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos’s Presidential Decree 27. Marcos signed on October…