Philippines: FARMERS RALLY FOR CARP EXTENSION, LAUNCH 3-M SIGNATURE CAMPAIGN

KATARUNGAN
(KILUSAN PARA SA REPORMANG pansakahan AT KATARUNGAN)

PRESS RELEASE

December 5, 2007

For immediate use

Reference: Lani Factor 0920-9512269

FARMERS RALLY FOR CARP EXTENSION, LAUNCH 3-M SIGNATURE CAMPAIGN

Some 2,000 farmers belonging to the newly-formed national coalition Kilusan para sa Repormang Pansakahan at Katarungan (or simply Katarungan) massed in front of the House of Representatives at the Batasan Complex in Quezon City to call on lawmakers to pass a law that would extend the implementation of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) beyond 2008.

The rally was timed for the opening of the House agrarian reform committee hearings on the CARP extension bills, of which five versions had been filed by pro-extension solons.

Eddie Lopez, spokesman for farmers’ groups in Bondoc peninsula, said the farmers are seeking the extension of CARP with reforms and with the land acquisition and distribution (LAD) component intact.

“We are not just seeking CARP extension per se. We want a CARP law with reforms. That means there should be provisions for enough budgets both for LAD and for support services. We want the CARP extension law to ensure that distribution of big landholdings will continue,” said Lopez.

The farmers also signed a petition for CARP extension, marking the start of a nationwide signature campaign dubbed by Katarungan as “Laban CARP! Lagdaang Bayan para sa Pagapatuloy ng CARP.”

Lopez said the campaign aims to gather three million signatures nationwide to impress upon lawmakers the overwhelming desire of farmers and farm workers for continued implementation of CARP.

“We hope to gather the three million signatures in a month or two through our nationwide network. We will work hard and fast. We want to show the congressmen and the public that there is a strong demand in the rural areas for the extension of CARP,” he said.

Farmers from Negros Occidental slammed three Visayan congressmen who, they said, had been making false claims against CARP in order to derail proposals for its extension.

Dorita Vargas, spokesperson for farmers’ groups in the province, said Representatives Ignacio “Iggy” Arroyo of 5th District Negros Occidental, Monico Fuentebella of Bacolod City, and Pablo Garcia of 2nd District Cebu have consistently opposed CARP extension by claiming that CARP had been the cause of violent land disputes among opposing farmer-claimants.

“They keep saying on various occasions that CARP should be reviewed first before there can be any extension because CARP is the cause of violent land disputes,” said Vargas, a farmer-beneficiary of Hacienda Manalo in Barangay Robles, La Castellana.

Vargas said that if there is anyone to blame for the violence in CARP-covered areas, it is the landowner who strongly opposes CARP and who prevents farmer-beneficiaries from occupying the land awarded to them.

“The cause of violence is not CARP but the anti-CARP landowners. But these three anti-CARP solons would not admit that because they are big landowners themselves and they would protect their own kind,” she said.

Vargas said that in Negros Occidental, all the violent incidents that occurred in CARP-covered haciendas were either initiated or perpetrated by landowners and their cohorts.

“The assassination of Wilfredo Cornea in Hacienda Mulawin, the murder of Mario Domingo in Hacienda Cambuktot, the killing of Teresa Mameng in Hacienda Conchita Villanueva, and the death of three farmer-beneficiaries in Hacienda Velez-Malaga were all perpetrated by landowners through their armed guards or hired goons,” said Vargas.

She said that in some cases where there appeared to be some dispute among farmer-beneficiaries, the brains behind the dispute was often the landowner.

“The landowners usually use the farmers and farm-workers loyal to them to oppose the legitimate claimants. In short, without the opposition of landowners to CARP, violent incidents are not likely to occur,” said Vargas.—(30)

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