Philippines: ‘Genuine Agrarian Reform Bill’ Filed, Solons Push for Free Distribution, Nationalization of Lands

Militant lawmakers in the House of Representatives today filed a
“Genuine Agrarian Reform Bill” which seeks to address the Filipino
peasantry’s demand for “social justice and liberation from feudal
bondage.”

Deputy Minority Leader Satur C. Ocampo said that “this bill seeks to
correct the centuries-old problem of landlessness in the country, and
break the monopoly and control of landlords and foreign
agro-corporations to our vast tracts of lands.”

Among the salient points of the genuine agrarian reform bill are the
free distribution of lands, the confiscation of sullied landholdings,
and the nationalization of vast tracts of lands operated and
controlled by transnational corporations.

Given the class character of Congress, Ocampo likened the bill to “a
sheep passing through a needle’s eye.”

“We know that this bill will face rough sailing in a
landlord-dominated Congress, but we are ready to assert and defend the
justness and validity of the Filipino peasantry’s demand for land
tracing back to the first land reform edict of the First Philippine
Republic at the turn of the last Century,” says Ocampo.

He called on Congress immediately tackle the genuine agrarian reform
bill for consideration as the government’s Comprehensive Agrarian
Reform Program is set to end in June next year. #

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