No ‘ayuda’ and food security in approved laws — farmers – updates from the peasant movement of the Philippines

Gov’t snubbed most pro-people measures
As Congress and Senate adjourn their first regular session today, farmers said the bills passed by both chambers are far from the demands raised by basic sectors and progressive organizations at the start of the Marcos Jr. administration. President Bongbong Marcos Jr will mark his first year in office on June 30.

“Many legislations marked as a priority by basic sectors — workers, farmers — were snubbed by legislators and were not even deliberated in House Committees,” according to former Representative and agrarian reform secretary Rafael Mariano. “Case in point is the Rice Industry Development Bill and proposed measures for the granting of P15,000 production subsidies for farmers and fisherfolks. Under this worsening food crisis situation, it is rather unfortunate that lawmakers opted to prioritize the Maharlika Investment Fund,” the KMP leader said.

Measures signed into law in the past year include SIM Registration Act, the Act Postponing the Barangay Elections, and the AFP Fixed Term Law. Four more approved laws are awaiting Marcos Jr’s signature, including the Condonation of Unpaid Amortization and Interests of Loans of Agrarian Reform Beneficiaries, the Regional Specialty Centers Act, the Extension of the Estate Tax Amnesty Act, and the recently passed Maharlika Investment Fund Act.

New Agrarian Emancipation Act

KMP said the New Agrarian Emancipation Act which will condone the unpaid amortization of farmer-beneficiaries is not an entirely new agrarian reform program that will replace the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP). CARP will turn 35 this year. The program’s land acquisition component expired in 2014 and the government has since stopped acquiring private lands for distribution to farmer-beneficiaries. Instead, the government focused on its backlogs and distribution of government owned-lands.

“It is only necessary to pardon the debts of agrarian reform beneficiaries (ARBs) who are unable to pay for the land already awarded to them through CARP. Matagal nang dapat ginawang libre ang pamamahagi ng lupa. Farmers have been asserting the legislation of free land distribution through the Genuine Agrarian Reform Bill but our demands fell on deaf ears once again under the Marcos Jr administration.”

The said legislation branded as among Marcos Jr’s landmark accomplishments will condone P58 billion in agrarian arrears of more than 600,000 agrarian reform beneficiaries in 1.18 million hectares of awarded lands. The approved measure, however, did not broaden the scope of support services for all ARBs and will only give preferential access to credit facilities and comprehensive support services to those who are fully paid with their amortization. “We expect Marcos Jr to showcase the New Agrarian Emancipation Act in his next SONA. However, a thousand and one problems within the agriculture sector remain unsolved,” the peasant leader concluded. ###

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Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas

The Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas or Peasant Movement of the Philippines (KMP) was founded at a time of great political upheaval and broad mass movement against the tyranny and abuses of the Marcos dictatorship. Hundreds of peasant leaders and land reform advocates from Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao gathered during the historic founding of KMP on July 24, 1985. After thirty five years, KMP remains as the largest national democratic mass organization of peasants in the Philippines.

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