Farmers stage rally at Palace gates

MANILA, Philippines - Police arrested 15 farmers after they held a lightning rally at the heavily guarded gates of Malacañang Palace yesterday morning.

The rallyists, who belong to Task Force Mapalad, snuck past policemen and soldiers guarding Mendiola Bridge by riding a passenger jeepney that plies through the streets around Malacañang.

After reaching one of the gates of Malacañang, the rallyists unfurled their banners while others bared the signs painted on their chests. Some of the signs read “PGMA distribute all Arroyo land” and “PGMA have a heart. Give us our land, distribute Hcda. Grande.”

Two of the rallyists, Irene Celis and Jerry Cahilig, handcuffed themselves to the steel gates and vowed not to leave the area until President Arroyo met with them. Presidential Security Group (PSG) personnel cut off the handcuffs that bound the two rallyists to the gate.

Police and PSG personnel dragged the farmers from the gates and hauled them off to the Manila Police District headquarters to face charges of illegal assembly, alarm and scandal and resisting arrest.

Task Force Mapalad president Jose Radito Angeles said some 500 farmers from Negros Occidental arrived at North Harbor yesterday morning to ask the President to extend the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP).

He urged Mrs. Arroyo to follow the footsteps of her father, the late President Diosdado Macapagal, who pressured Congress into passing Republic Act 3644 by threatening to call for indefinite special session. “We urge President Arroyo to do the same in the case of CARP extension,” Angeles said.

Except for suffering abrasions, the arrested farmers were in a light mood as they met with reporters at the MPD. The arrested farmers, represented by lawyer Carl Marx Carumba, said they expect their group to come to the MPD headquarters to plead for their release.