Farmers groups ask presidential bets: Where do you stand on land reform?

From InterAksyon (Jan 22): Farmers groups ask presidential bets: Where do you stand on land reform?



Reenactment of Mnediola Massacre scene in 2015. Photographed by Bernard Testa, InterAksyon.com

Marking the 29th year of the so-called Mendiola Massacre, farmers groups challenged the presidential front-runners on Friday to make known their stand on agrarian reform, including land distribution to farmers.

The Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP) said Vice President Jejomar Binay, Senator Grace Poe and Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte should declare if they would support land distribution to Hacienda Luisita and other farmers working in vast haciendas and plantation estates in the country.

"We are challenging the three presidential front-runners, especially – Binay, Poe, and Duterte – to make known their stand on the genuine distribution of Hacienda Luisita and other vast landholdings, like the Araneta Estate in San Jose Del Monte, Bulacan and Rodriguez, Rizal owned by the relatives of Mar Roxas," KMP chairperson Rafael Mariano said.

"The distribution of Hacienda Luisita and other vast haciendas remains a litmus test for presidential wannabes," he said.

Hacienda Luisita is owned by the family of President Benigno Cojuangco Aquino III.

In 2012, the Supreme Court ordered the distribution of all agricultural lands in Hacienda Luisita. But, according to the KMP, in 2014, the Department of Agrarian Reform instead selected the farmer-beneficiaries by drawing lots using a tambiolo system (lottery drum).

"The challenge for Binay, Poe, and Duterte is to reverse DAR's fake distribution scheme that was designed to displace the farm workers and divide their ranks," Mariano said.

Antonio Flores, KMP secretary general, said "up to now, no presidential bet has categorically declared support for genuine land reform."

"We will never hesitate to expose candidates who only pretend, insult, and snub the peasantry's demand for genuine land reform, even our allies," Flores said.

Members of KMP trooped to Mendiola Bridge in Manila to pay tribute to farmers who died during a protest rally there, fighting for their right to land.
On January 22, 1987, thousands of farmers marched to Malaccañang to press their demand for genuine land reform under the administration of the late President Corazon Cojuangco-Aquino, mother of President Aquino.

But upon reaching the foot of Mendiola Bridge, anti-riot personnel from the Western Police District, the Integrated National Police, and the Philippine Marines opened fire on the protesting farmers and their supporters.

After the shooting, Danilo Arjona, Leopoldo Alonzo, Adelfa Aribe, Dionisio Bautista, Roberto Caylao, Vicente Campomanes, Ronilo Dumanico, Dante Evangelio, Angelito Gutierrez, Rodrigo Grampan, Bernabe Laquindanum, Sonny Boy Perez, and Roberto Yumul lay dead.

More than 80 others were wounded.

The massacre scuttled ongoing peace talks between the government and the National Democratic Front of the Philippines that year. A year later, the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP), described by militants as "sham and anti-farmer," was passed by Congress and signed into law.

http://www.interaksyon.com/article/123113/farmers-groups-ask-presidential-bets-where-do-you-stand-on-land-reform