Farmers hit Noy over agrarian reform

MANILA, Philippines - A group of farmers hit President Aquino yesterday for lack of leadership and a clear signal that would demonstrate his determination to complete and implement agrarian reform.

Protests came after the President failed to mention agrarian reform issues in his keynote address during the National Anti-Poverty Commission’s Sectoral Assembly held last Oct. 17, which discouraged farmers invited to the event.

Alberto Jaime, president of Task Force Mapalad (TFM) which has several members from provinces with large undistributed lands like Negros Occidental, said, “We fully supported him in the 2010 elections but he did not even mention the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program. CARP is not moving in Negros.”

“Huwag nyang hayaang humawak kami ng baril (He should not wait for us to take up arms),” Jaime warned.

Farmer-leader Elidelyn Paclibar said Aquino should heed his “bosses,” referring to the masa.

She said that farmers would not just sit down and allow the government to kill the program.

“Farmers are used to hardships. We are used to sacrificing our lives,” Paclibar added.

“Agrarian reform is the fruit of sacrifices of the farmers. This is his mother’s legacy to the poor,” said Evangeline Mendoza, farmer-leader of PESANTE, whose members are currently holding a barricade in a Yulo estate in Canlubang, Laguna.

PESANTE is pitted against the Yulos and Ayala Land Holdings whose real estate and luxury homes projects have displaced thousands of farming families from their lands.

Talk about termination of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program Extension with Reforms (CARPER) started when the President issued an executive order instructing the Department of Agrarian Reform to downsize its personnel early this year.

“Agrarian reform cannot and should not end by 2014 because there are still a lot of pending cases that have run for 40 years now, like that of hacienda Yulo,” Mendoza said.