And should these problems persist, Ramos of KMP said, not only would the peasants be deprived of their right to the land they till but also the Filipino people would be denied their right to food security. “Peasant issues are people’s issues,” he said.
Challenge
Peasant leaders are challenging president-elect Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino to act on the case of the farmers of Sitio Buntod in Hacienda Yulo. They are becoming restless because Aquino seems to be keeping his silence regarding the violence the peasants of Sito Bunsod suffered when the Yulo family ordered the police to arrest them. The said dispersal was the first violent attack against peasants, which was instigated by landlords, since the elections. Pinpin said landlords and hacienderos (plantation owners) seem to be celebrating already even if Aquino, who also comes from a landed family, has not yet been inaugurated in Malacanang.
“This is what we are drumming up during the campaign period that if Noynoy wins, agrarian unrest would intensify because he is the present symbol of local feudalism and puppetry to US imperialism,” Ramos said in a statement.
In fact, peasant leaders in Hacienda Yulo fear that under the Aquino administration, the probability is high that the Yulo family would be able to get what they want.
“They are political prostitutes ,” Pinpin said, referring to the Yulo family. He added that they were able to retain the land through the administrations of Ferdinand Marcos, Corazon Aquino, Fidel Ramos, Joseph Estrada and of course, Gloria Arroyo.
Pinpin said Noynoy Aquino has no qualms about his family’s involvement in the Mendiola massacre and the Hacienda Luisita massacre. “How much more here at Yulo when no deaths have been reported yet?” Pinpin said, “There will be no political honeymoon between the government and peasants under the Aquino administration.” (Bulatlat.com)
