This month of December, I witnessed hundreds of farmers in the streets of Manila marching their way to Malacanang Palace to demand CARP (Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program) extension. There were Calatagan farmers, Banasi farmers, Negros farmers and Bukidnon IP farmers.
I came to visit 8 farmers who were from Negros and are tenants of the 3 haciendas of the Arroyo family. They are now on their 7th day of HUNGER STRIKE. They were asking that the land they tilled for a long long time be given to them as required by law.
I visited on the 4th day of their strike and I came to know that a woman farmer has already passed out from hunger and was taken to the hospital. She went back at the front of the DAR office and resumed her hunger strike when she was discharged the same day.
I was first a passive observer prior to immersing myself in this kind of advocacy. In fact I hated these “rallyists” for causing traffic and littering the streets. It was only when I learned about their plight that I came to involve myself and supported their activities. My “love affair” with them started last year with the Sumilao farmers. I was literally bombed with information about them that I came to join their march from Cubao to Ateneo because it was for justice. Right now, the Sumilao farmers are in peace because they now legally own the land they rightfully own in the first place.
The farmers in the city have almost the same stories as the Sumilao farmers. The Calatagan farmers have already paid for their land but the registrar did not annotate the title. When the Ascue family came to know about it, they sold it to the Asturias Corp and now there is mess. (story here) The Negros farmers are tenants of the Arroyo family in Negros. It is sad to know that GMA is silent on this issue hounding her family and administration. She cannot really clean her own backyard.
Reflecting from the events starting last year, it is sad to note that FARMERS WOULD GO TO THE STREETS FOR THEIR VOICES TO BE HEARD. Instead of caring for those who provide food for this country, the funds for them get stashed in someone’s bank account (read: Bolante); they are literally being reduced to the margins in this agricultural country where they should be given priority. Instead of giving them their own lands lands to till, they are made to work for their lords. We are going back to the middle ages…
Is this the way justice works here? That they have to be in the streets for their appeals to be heard? When will this continue? How long will the CARP extension be passed, after those Negros farmers die from hunger?
Farmers should not be here in the city. They have to be in their farms tilling the land, earning a living for their families, and supplying us needed rice. But they are not. Instead, they are in the streets crying out for justice; they are hungry when in fact they should be full, their feet are in the streets where they should be in the paddies, they are crying for a land when they should have had their own.
Lifequests 