5,000 militants to hold march showing support to President Duterte

From the Philippine News Agency (Oct 7): 5,000 militants to hold march showing support to President Duterte

About 5,000 farmers and members of the tribal community would hold a march-rally here Saturday as President Rodrigo Duterte marked his 100 days in office, the militant group Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan) said Friday.

However, contrary to past march-rallies where the militant groups took turns in lambasting the administration, the scheduled march-rally here would be to dramatize support to Mr. Duterte’s accomplishments in his first 100 days in office.

Wildon Barros, chair of Bayan in Northern Mindanao, said that the marchers would demonstrate support to the President’s peace initiatives, national sovereignty, and social justice programs.

The occasion was timely as the government panel and the National Democratic Front of the Philippines enter their second round of peace talks in Oslo, Norway, Barros said.

He said that the second round of peace talk would focus on land reform problems, national industrialization, and the root causes of the insurgency, and Socioeconomic Reforms (SER).

Barros said that the militant and progressive groups that include the indigenous peoples would also bring to President Duterte’s attention the alleged failure of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) in Northern Mindanao.

According to Barros, more than 100,000 hectares of land under the CARP had remained undistributed in the region and many more CARP beneficiaries have no land titles until now.

Barros said that the participants to the march-rally include the Kilusang Magbubukid sa Pilipinas (Farmers’ Movement of the Philippines), the IPs and the urban poor.

http://www.pna.gov.ph/index.php?idn=2&sid=&nid=2&rid=929574