Farmers block DAR gates

MANILA, Philippines - Militant farmers yesterday put up a barricade at the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) office in Quezon City as they accused Congress of railroading bills seeking to extend the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP).

Members of the Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP) set up lengths of bamboo with barbed wire that served as a blockade at the main gates of the DAR in an attempt to put off what the group described as “a bogus public hearing” by the Congressional Oversight Committee on Agrarian Reform (COCAR) on House Bill 4296 and Senate Bill 2188, new CARP extension bills that were filed last April 8 and April 10, respectively.

“HB 4296 is yet to be read on first reading but was already set for hearing next week,” KMP secretary-general Antonio Flores said.

He referred to the COCAR public hearing as “bogus” because farmers were not invited to the public hearing.

HB 4296 was authored by Ifugao Rep. Teddy Baguilat and SB 2188 was authored by Sen. Gregorio Honasan, both chairpersons of the COCAR.

The KMP said the government not only failed in breaking the monopoly of big landlords and foreign agro-corporations over vast tracts of land, but consciously favored big landlords and denied farmers of their rights over the lands.

The KMP has been pushing for the enactment of HB 252 or the Genuine Agrarian Reform Bill, which seeks the nationalization of all agricultural lands and the subsequent free distribution of land to landless tillers. 

The group said they later learned the public hearing by the COCAR concerning the CARP extension had been cancelled.