The militant Alyansa ng mga Magbubukid ng Gitnang Luson (AMGL), together with other progressive mass organizations, disclosed the holding of “SAKBAYAN 2015,” a caravan they dubbed as a funeral march.
Unlike the conduct of the previous years where peasants travelled on foot, this year’s SAKBAYAN will be a caravan starting on Saturday (June 6) and will culminate on the 10th.
Provincial caravans will also be launched on June 6 and 7 and will converge at Plaza Miranda here on the morning of the 8th for a regional protest rally.
The peasants’ caravan will then move to Hacienda Dolores in Porac, Pampanga for another demonstration.
The peasants’ caravan is also expected to stop at the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) Regional Office and other government offices before moving to the House of Representatives in Quezon City.
“Peasants from all over Central Luzon will leave their farms for a while to call for genuine land reform. The bogus CARP, the longest, most anomalous, and bloodiest land reform ever enacted in Asia, has long been dead.
Thus, peasants themselves will bury CARP with the landlord regime of Aquino,” said Joseph Canlas, chairperson of AMGL.
Highlights of the said caravan are the local struggles of the peasants of Hacienda Luisita, Hacienda Dolores, and Clark Green City where indigenous people are also threatened, said Canlas.
Peasants are also supporting the passage of the Genuine Agrarian Reform Bill (GARB), a progressive alternative to CARP which is being proposed by the solons of the Makabayan Bloc.
“But this should not be mistaken that genuine agrarian reform will be implemented by the bureaucrats. Genuine agrarian reform is still an initiative of the farmers and it is enacted as peasants assert their rights over the lands they till even over idle lands,” said Canlas.
He added that in the countryside, peasants take the initiative to occupy and till lands, a concrete manifestation of the strength of the peasants’ collective action.
The peasants’ caravan is expected to stay in Manila until the 11th for another protest at the Mendiola Peace Arc near Malacañang Palace.
Also present during the event were former Anakpawis partylist congressman and Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP) Chairman Rafael “Ka Paeng” Mariano and Rep. Fernando Hicap also of Anakpawis.
