CITY OF SAN FERNANDO – Landlords, big businessmen, and political allies are mostly likely to appreciate Pres. Aquino’s State of the Nation Address (SONA) next month.
This was the fearless forecast of the militant Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP) amid Pres. Aquino’s plan to focus on rural development programs in the years remaining in his term.
The plan has elicited skepticism among farmers who said the president’s uncle, businessman Eduardo “Danding” Cojuangco Jr. and Interior and Local Governments Sec. Mar Roxas are among the big beneficiaries of rural projects already lined up.
The KMP issued this statement yesterday after Malacanang said that “rural development will be the Aquino administration’s focus in the next three years as part of the economic roadmap” to be presented during his SONA next month.
The KMP said that the plan would involve huge Public-Private Partnership (PPP) projects initiated by the Aquino government.
“Among these big ticket PPP’s are pet projects of Aquino’s relatives and most trusted allies,” the KMP said.
The group cited the “P53-billion Metro Rail Transit Line 7 project from North EDSA to San Jose Del Monte, Bulacan and the P11.2-billion Jalaur River Mega Dam project in Iloilo.”
”Only Pres. Aquino’s uncle, Eduardo ‘Danding’ Cojuangco Jr. and Local Governments Sec. Mar Roxas’ families will benefit from these multi-billion peso projects,” said KMP secretary general Antonio Flores.
Flores said “the construction of MRT-7 will be led by Cojuangco’s San Miguel Corp. together with Universal LRT Corporation.”
He also noted that “the MRT-7’s intermodal depot and residential-commercial components will be built over 311 hectares of agricultural lands in Barangay Tungkong Mangga in San Jose Del Monte being claimed by Roxas’ relatives, the Aranetas.”
”While Cojuangco and the Aranetas feast over the project, more than 1,000 farmer-families will be displaced from their farmlands and the Filipino people will shoulder the gargantuan debt to be incurred by the Aquino government for the MRT-7.”
Flores also noted that the Jalaur River Multi-Purpose Project’s second phase, to cost P11.2 billion, was facilitated by Liberal Party stalwart Sen. Franklin Drilon in his political bailiwick.
“The second phase will construct a storage and reservoir dam along Jalaur River in central Iloilo town of Calinog and has a total budget of P11.2 billion. Of this, P8.96 billion will be funded from the Official Development Assistance (ODA) from the Korean government of which a loan agreement with the Korean Export-Import Bank was already signed on August 9, 2012,” he said.
Flores warned that “a total of 17,000 indigenous peoples will be dislocated by the incoming Drilon’s mega-dam project in his home province.”
“With Aquino’s so-called focus on rural development, the government will surely force anti-people programs in the rural areas that would worsen landlessness and the dislocation of farmers, fishers, and the rural poor,” he added.
Flores said “Aquino’s so-called rural development is the same old policies of denationalization, the sell-out of vast tracts of lands and resources to foreign corporations and agribusinesses.”
“Only big landlords and big businesses will applaud during Aquino’s SONA while farmers and the Filipino people will intensify street protests and mass struggles during his SONA for the rest of his term,” he also said.
