We will continue to assert genuine land reform, free land distribution and the lifting of Martial Law,” KMP said in a statement.
In preparation for Duterte’s second SONA, KMP said it discussed in its 8th National Congress in Bicol region “the series of ‘peasant offensives’ to dismantle haciendas and further advance genuine land reform.”
The congress was attended by more than a thousand peasant leaders and farmers from 67 provinces and 15 regions, it noted.
“Prior to Duterte’s SONA, farmers organizations will launch actions ranging from occupation of lands, protest camp-outs, barricades and Kadenang Magsasaka in towns, provinces and regions,” KMP said.
KMP secretary general Antonio Flores said “farmers, fisherfolk and agricultural workers nationwide will link arms and demand genuine land reform.”
“Walang natupad sa mga ipinangako ni Pangulong Duterte. Kaya sa SONA patuloy na igigiit ng mga magsasaka ang aming mga panawagan at sisilingin si Duterte,” Flores added.
He said “Duterte has failed the peasant sector” and that “there is no genuine land reform.”
“Land monopoly persists and vast tracts of lands remain in the control of a few landed families. Thousands of hectares of lands are devoted to foreign-owned plantations,” he lamented.
“It’s 2017 but haciendas still exist. The hacienda system perpetuates the landlessness and poverty of farmers,” said Bert Autor, chairperson of Kilusang Magbubukid ng Bicol (KMB-KMP).
Autor said “the Government of the Republic of the Philippines peace panel is all for show with regards to achieving a Comprehensive Agreement on Social and Economic Reforms (CASER). The GRP should show sincerity and seriousness in inking an agreement on much-needed socio-economic reforms.”
KMP noted that “across the country, farmers are launching land occupation campaigns in haciendas, disputed lands and abandoned lands.”
This, even as Flores reported that “in Negros island, considered as the hacienda capital of the country, there are 4,303 ongoing land occupation campaigns carried out by farmers. In Bicol, farmers from Hacienda Peralta, Hacienda Manubay, Hacienda Bulaong, Hacienda Peralta, Isla Daegan and Hacienda Almeda are leading land occupation and cultivation campaigns to alleviate the state of farmers.”
“We demand the distribution of coco lands and the return of the P75-billion coco levy fund,” he said.
KMP said that on July 23, along with agricultural workers, fisherfolk, rural women and rural youth, it will present the State of the Peasant Address (SOPA) in a campout at the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) central office in Manila.
Similar actions will take place in Quezon, Cordillera, Ilocos, Negros, Panay, Cebu, Davao region, Caraga, Northern Mindanao and Socksargen, it also said.
For his part KMP chairperson Joseph Canlas noted that “while DAR Secretary Rafael Mariano is exerting serious efforts to address landlessness and many problems resulting from the bogus Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP), Pres. Duterte has not made any clear-cut policy on genuine land reform.”
“Worse, farmers defending their lands are being killed. Under the Duterte administration, 66 farmers and peasant leaders were killed. On top of the military’s allout-war against the people, Martial Law in Mindanao has intensified human rights violations, bombings and humanitarian crisis in rural areas,” Canlas added.
