Women farmers and advocates marked the UN International Day of Rural Women with a protest in front of the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR), highligting the issues of landlessness, displacement and land-use conversions.

Members of Amihan travelled all the way from Lupang Ramos, Dasmarinas City in Cavite; Hacienda Luisita in Tarlac, and Sta. Cruz, Laguna to condemn DAR’s complicity in massive land-grabbing by the Villars, Aranetas, Cojuangcos, Ayalas, and foreign investors.

Amihan held a “long receipt” of approved land-use conversion projects nationwide facilitated by the DAR. According to the Bureau of Agricultural Statistics, land-use conversion has led to an annual 27,000 hectares decrease in agricultural lands since 1991.

Amihan said that peasant women were faced with threats of eviction due to the construction of subdivisions, malls, golf courses, and ecozones.

“Landlessness, land grabbing and land-use conversion worsened because of the greed and control by a few landlords, capitalists and foreign investors,” said Cathy Estavillo, Amihan secretary general and second nominee of Gabriela Women’s Party.

The group asserted that the Marcos administration’s policies are destroying the livelihood of the peasant women and their families. The ongoing land grabbing and conversion resulted in a decrease in arable land for rice and food production.

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