Bayan Muna Southern Tagalog is in the area to conduct an investigation on the effects of the El Niño drought in peasant communities in Quezon. According to the group, the drought is affecting farming communities all over the country, particularly rice farmers.
“We must look for ways to lessen the vulnerabilities and enhance our capabilities in disaster response.”
Even the 15,000 sacks of rice pledged as humanitarian aid by President Rodrigo Duterte when he was still Davao City mayor have yet to be fully distributed.
“The thousands of farmers will only be affirming to the government officials what they actually already know – that the extreme drought results in death not only of the crops but also the people who plant them!”
By DEE AYROSO
“They were even maligned by the local government who told them, ‘mga patay gutom kayo hindi nyo alam kung pano pagtrabahuan ang mga ito. Dapat rice for work,’” (You starving to death people; you didn’t even work for this. We should have asked you to work in exchange for this rice.)
By BENJIE OLIVEROS Bulatlat perspective When people use the phrase “Let them eat brioche (cake),” quoting a French queen – widely believed to be Queen Marie-Antoinette, wife of King Louis XVI, but later discovered to be Queen Marie Therese, wife of Louis XIV – who uttered the phrase in response to the clamor of hungry…
“The impunity promoted by Aquino underscores his accountability on the Kidapawan carnage. The President is allowing farmers to starve and die of hunger. He is guilty of incompetence, criminal negligence and genocide.”
“Hunger. This is what we have been experiencing. I hope our government officials would stop lying.”
By INA ALLECO R. SILVERIO
Pamalakaya, the fisherfolk group, said the government should stop “the national auction of coastal resources to multinationals and transnational corporation,” saying such a policy would worsen the impact of climate change.
