The UPM USC Statement for Peasant Month Madaming Kahig, Walang Matuka This month we celebrate the October Peasant Month and we, especially the farmers themselves are to commemorate it amidst intentionally widespread poverty and hunger. In our country alone, 3.85 million Filipino households said that they experience involuntary hunger. In the NCR, the official minimum wage is P 466 short of the minimum cost of living; worse are the conditions of workers who receive wages much more minimal than the nominal minimum wage thru the two-tiered wage systems irrational floor wage. Meanwhile farm-workers all over the country receive on average a meager P200 for a whole days work. It is as if we are slowly being killed. Faithful to his familys bloody legacy, the haciendero regime of BS Aquino has consistently worsened our food insecurity and the already dismal condition our farmers are in, through massive importation of agricultural and food products, land-use conversion of vast tracts of agricultural lands, and the systematic affliction of violence to our food-making farmers. Trucks and trucks of basic food products such as onion, garlic, and our staple, rice are being dumped on our local food markets. Such policy effectively destroys local production of such basic goods, ultimately taking advantage from our local producers capability to produce the food we very much need. Equally destructive is the systematic smuggling of the same products; as we have witnessed in the recent expose of rice smuggling case. The link between the legal and illegal means of importation is undeniable as the government has recently matter-of-factly acknowledged the existence of an onion cartel. Incidentally, the Filipino people are to ironically face the October 16 World Food Day food-less. Along with this is the devastation of farmer lands through huge Public-Private Partnership (PPP) projects. Second biggest of such is the proposed construction of the P6.7 billion MRT-7 directly on vegetable and fruit farmer lands. Some of the peasant families affected were beneficiaries of the government’s bogus agrarian reform program, (CARPER), but they were easily abandoned by BS Aquino and his allies/supporters/cronies such as former DILG secretary Mar Roxas, and business tycoons Henry Sy and the Ayalas. 3000 hectares of productive agricultural land in Bulacan tilled by farmers to yield kamote, fruits & vegetables delivered to various urban markets are to be marked up by private citadels for corporate profit. The hacienderos are undoubtedly using their power in government to cash in upon the misery of our farmers. Cases upon cases of surveillance, verbal abuse, harassment, threats, physical violence, destruction of crops and huts, and political killings pile up as our very own military forces team up with private security guards and armies as they try to scare away farmers from fighting for their right to land and life. Students like us may seem detached from these gleam realities but just recently we see a manifestation of BS Aquino’s privatization panacea infecting the most primal of our needs as our beloved Gab Caf was effectively demolished. This again all in the name of profit! And then we hear the haciendero president talk about term extension for the supposed continuance of his reforms. The only things to continue under this corrupt haciendero regime is hunger, poverty, and violence. Hence we are one with the farmers in the call to resist any attempt of the haciendero Aquino regime for term extension. We need a pro-farmer leader who is determined to pursue the implementation of a genuine agrarian reform program for the attainment of justice and development. We are hence being called by fellow Filipinos to step up and support the farmers against this oppressive haciendero regime. Fight for Genuine Agrarian Reform! Join the Peasant Activities & Mobilizations! Oct 18-19: CommuniTrip: Basic Masses Integration at San Jose Del Monte Bulacan Oct 20: Japanese Embassy to DAR Peasant Caravan against Japanese “Aid” for MRT 7 Oct 21: Mob for Genuine Agrarian Reform at Mendiola
Posted on: Sun, 12 Oct 2014 11:08:16 +0000
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