Ahead of the President’s first year in office on June 30, farmers and food producers from different provinces will mount mobilizations at the Departments of Agriculture and Agrarian Reform today to remind President Bongbong Marcos Jr of his promises — to bring down the price of rice to P20 per kilo and to address the plight of farmers and uplift the local agriculture
“This will be Marcos Jr’s ‘final chance’ to genuinely help farmers. We gave him a year to make good his promises but he did the opposite. We even presented comprehensive proposed measures but he prioritized going on trips abroad and vlogging. He did not even bother listening to the endless demands of farmers, fisherfolks, and the poor. Farmers will march to Mendiola to amplify anew our calls and demands. His SONA on July 24 will be the judgment day,” according to KMP chairperson Danilo Ramos.
Farmers from Central Luzon and Southern Tagalog will march from DAR in Quezon City to Mendiola in Manila to demand the administration enact a new land reform program to replace the 35-year-old Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP). They say it has been almost a decade since the government stopped acquiring new lands for distribution to farmer-beneficiaries after the Land Acquisition and Distribution (LAD) component of CARP expired in 2014. According to KMP, this situation has worsened the impoverishment of Filipino farmers while allowing landowners to take over thousands of hectares of private agricultural lands.
“Farmers have presented to the President who is also the agriculture secretary, the proposed “Doables in the Agriculture sector.” However, what we got was unlimited importation and smuggling of agricultural products,” according to Danilo Ramos as he lambasted the latest recommendation of the Sugar Regulatory Administration (DA-SRA) to import another 150,000 metric tons of sugar.
“We repeatedly asked the DA to grant production and agricultural subsidies for farmers, but funds for agricultural development will be pooled into the Maharlika fund instead.”
KMP said activities for the Martsa ng Magbubukid para sa Lupa, Kapapayaan at Hustisya will also underscore the situation of peasant communities experiencing human rights violations due to militarization and force surrender campaigns carried out by the NTF-ELCAC.
Farmers from Bulacan, Tarlac, Nueva Ecija, Zambales, Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal, and Quezon will join the march from DAR to Mendiola tomorrow, June 9 on the eve of CARP’s 35th year. Simultaneous farmer-led actions and protestang bukid will also take place in Bicol, Panay, Negros at Ilocos regions. #
