From Hacienda Almeda to Lupang Ramos – Support the Peasant Struggle in the Philippines!


Statement
October 21, 2024

On October 21st, peasants all over the Philippines mobilized in a nationwide day of action to promote the call for genuine land reform and oppose the attacks of the US-backed Marcos Jr. Regime against the peasant movement. 

On this day of action, ICHRP extends our solidarity to peasants struggling for land in Hacienda Luisita, Hacienda Tinang, Araneta Estates; to peasants facing land use changes in Hacienda Roxas, Lupang Tartaria, Lupang Ramos and Southern Tagalog; to peasants facing eviction and land disputes in Cagayan Valley, Bicol and Panay; to peasants facing land reclassification in Negros, as well as those facing destructive mining and megadam projects in Cordillera; and everywhere in the Philippines where the people clamor for genuine land reform and freedom from militarization, land-grabbling, and land monopolization.

October 21 marks the 52nd anniversary of dictator Ferdinand Marcos Sr.’s Presidential Decree 27, a sham land reform which removed protective measures from the food market and made it easier for predatory foreign corporations to take business away from peasants. The decree also incorporated loans from the World Bank, which made farm equipment available for loan with the caveat that the market determined the interest rates. This resulted in predatory loans for peasants with interest rates becoming as high as 38%. Poverty rates increased in the countryside from 33% to 73%.

Today, 52 years after Marcos Sr’s sham land reform program, peasants continue to suffer intense poverty on top of terrorist land-grabbing by big land monopolies and foreign corporations. As indicated in the International People’s Tribunal verdict  and the documentation and reportage of  human rights organizations like Karapatan, peasants also face the brunt of state violence and brutal militarization. Just this week, 7 private security “goons” and 4 members of the Philippine National Police arrested 17 elderly and 12 minors of the Mangyan Iraya, indigenous people and residents of Hacienda Almeda. Hacienda Almeda is part of the 31 hectares of ancestral land of the Irayas that is continuously being taken from them through extortion, militarization, and fraud by armed private goons and state agents. 

Meanwhile, the  US continues to lead and finance efforts to further militarize the Philippines, making the countryside more dangerous for peasants. This week, the US kicked off the Kamandag exercises, military drills which occur yearly in the Philippines. This year 2,351 troops from the US, Japan, Australia, South Korea, and the United Kingdom participate in the training while France, Thailand, and Indonesia also sent observers. These troops train with the Armed Forces of the Philippines and enable the killings of peasants in the countryside. 

Militarization of the countryside and the continuing wide scale displacement of peasants and farmers who cannot own land remains at the core of the decades long state of unpeace, armed conflict, and human rights crises throughout the Philippines. The continuous plunder and sell-out of Philippine agricultural lands, natural and mineral resources for the minority few and global monopoly capital is at the heart of the Filipino people’s misery and prevents economic and industrial development in the country.

ICHRP members stand in solidarity with the peasants, and rural communities of the Philippines and support their struggle for genuine land reform. We must oppose all support for the Marcos Jr. regime that bombs, kills and tortures peasant and indigenous communities  while it strips them of their right to food, land and self-determination. 

Support the Filipino People’s Call for Genuine Land Reform!
Stop the Attacks Against Filipino Peasants!
Oppose State Terrorism in the Philippines!



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