CDC security forces are taken by surprise when militants were able to penetrate the main gate of the freeport in Angeles City during their protest march. Photo by Ding Cervantes
CLARK FREEPORT – Central Luzon farmers marked here Wednesday the 40th anniversary of Presidential Decree 27 or the Emancipation Law in a march penetrating the main gate of this Freeport, as they sought the passage of House Bill 374 or the Genuine Agrarian Reform Bill (GARB), among other demands.
The farmers were able to get past the main gate and clambered up to the guardhouse to wave flags and banners, as security cars and a firetruck of the Clark Development Corp. (CDC) rushed to block them from farther access.
“We protest the detrimental policies and program of the Aquino government, displacing farmers and even urban poor from the lands of the region and offering them to foreign investors.
The Aquino presidency has never effected any fundamental changes, as farmers are still facing chronic landlessness leading to unimaginable poverty and hardships,”said Joseph Canlas, chairman of the Alyansa ng Magbubukid sa Gitnang Luson (AMGL) and Anakpawis regional coordinator.
Former Pres. Marcos issued PD 27 in October 1972 decreeing the “emancipation (of farmers) from te bondage of the soil” and transferring to them ownership of the lands they till.”
The farmers initially assembled in Barangay San Roque, Tarlac City, to demand justice for the fatal shooting last Oct. 2 of 15-year-old John Khali Lagrimas during a violent dispersal of settlers in a land being claimed by one person. They blamed the police for the incident.
The protesters then marched to this Freeport also “to protest the continuing land grabbing and displacement of farmers cultivating the remaining lands of the former Clark airbase military reservation and the continuing puppetry of the Aquino government to the US by upholding periodic Balikatan military exercises in the region.”
“We are also demanding the repeal of Republic Act 9700 or the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program Extension with ‘Reforms’ or CARPer and the passage of the House Bill 374 or the Genuine Agrarian Reform Bill (GARB) filed by Anakpawis Rep. Rafael Mariano,” Canlas said.
He also accused the Aquino government of “hastening the dislocation of farmers” purportedly to pave the way for foreign investors to take over their “lands, minerals and other natural resources.”
“Aquino is worsening landlessness and putting farmers into poverty and misery. Aquino has sold the Filipino people to foreign interests,” Canlas said.
He said more protest actions would be held today and tomorrow to mark the anniversary of PD 27 issued after former Pres. Marcos declared Martial Law.
“Farmers, fisherfolk and indigenous peoples in Central Luzon are the usual victims of government programs and projects such land use conversion, eco-tourism, super-highways, mining and more,” added Canlas.
Canlas also bewailed “confusion among the farmworkers of Hacienda Luisita as the government has made a new list of farmworker-beneficiaries, contrary to the 6,296-name list considered by the Supreme Court.”
The rallyists also expressed opposition to the alleged inaction of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) on “destructive mining operations in Zambales, and black sand mining in Lingayen, Pangasinan.”
