The Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP) urged yesterday legislators to “thoroughly discuss and consider the enactment of House Bill 555 or the Genuine Agrarian Reform Bill (GARB) pending before the House of Representatives for the past decade.”
“This legislature is far more significant and beneficial than the death penalty measure being discussed by lawmakers. A new and genuine land reform program will benefit millions of farmers, it will boost the local agriculture and help foster rural and national industrialization,” said KMP secretary general Antonio Flores in a statement.
Flores noted that “the main content of the GARB is free land distribution. In principle, the government recognizes the need for genuine land reform and free land distribution to address rural poverty.”
“Farmers have been waiting for the passage of GARB for a decade already. The Duterte government should enact a genuine land reform program to help address the problem of landlessness and poverty which are among the root causes of the intensifying armed conflict,” he said.
The farmers group also encouraged the government “to continue with the stalled peace negotiations that had significant headway in the discussions on free land distribution in the third round of the negotiations.
“We do not want the progress of the peace talks to go into waste. We want an end to this all-out war that is severely affecting civilians, especially farmers and indigenous peoples. Malacanang should stop being stubborn and go back to the peace negotiating table,” Flores said.
