KMP to Sumilao farmers: Don’t allow yourselves to be used by Gloria and opportunist groups

CARP extension will be bane of farmers

The militant Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP) issued a warning to the Sumilao farmers against being used by Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and opportunist groups that are using their issue to call for the extension of the bogus Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP).
According to Rafael “Ka Paeng” Mariano, chairman of KMP and concurrent president of ANAKPAWIS party list, “with the extension of the CARP, massive landlessness of farmers will continue, to date seven out of ten farmers still do not own the land they till, in some regions like Central Luzon, Southern Tagalog and Southern Mindanao Region, it is eight out of ten. CARP has not solved the basic problem of landlessness of peasants and in fact made it worse,”
“Our fellow farmers in Sumilao should remember that it was the CARP itself that was used to evict them from their land. The landlords used the CARP provision under Section 3, stating the definition of agricultural land and as implemented by Department of Justice Opinion 44, that a land which was already reclassified before CARP’s implementation is exempted from its coverage” said Mariano.
“In fact it is not even a guarantee when farmers have their certificates of land transfer (CLT), emancipation patents (EP) and certificates of land ownership award (CLOA) that they will own the land they till, in 2004 alone more than 2,000 CLOAs and EPs were cancelled, that covers around 380,000 hectares. Big landlords and corporations like Danding Cojuangco and San Miguel Corporation is also using it to further expand their land at the expense of farmers and they will do everything to evict peasants from their lands. The hacienda of the Arroyos inNegros has not even been touched by CARP,” added the peasant leader.
“The Sumilao farmers should also be very careful in dealing with Gloria and opportunist groups because they are really hell bent in extending CARP considering that it is one of their primary cash cows. Since 1998-2006 more than P119 billion has been released for the implementation of CARP, this does not even include the millions of funds that came from the European Union and the World Bank for its implementation, where has all this money gone? Like the fertilizer scam evidence points to Gloria and opportunist groups pocketed most these funds,” he pointed out.
“No amount of amendments can correct the inherent pro-landlord and anti-peasant character of CARP. We must not let the CARP to further bastardize the welfare of peasants in the country. Gloria and her cohorts would just issue motherhood statements and not address the peasantry’s woes. The peasant class has to unite to fight for their right to land and genuine agrarian reform,” ended Mariano. #

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