Farmers said Marcos Jr’s decision to give priority to debt servicing and infrastructure during this period of worsening food crisis is telling of what’s in store for Filipinos in the next six years.
Amid increasing prices and alleged supply shortage of sugar, life remains bitter for the sugar workers of Negros.
“Holding Villanueva and his lackeys accountable for their violations of human rights and agrarian reform policy is especially timely, given that Ferdinand Marcos, Jr. had nothing worthwhile to say about human rights and food sovereignty in his State of the Nation Address.”
“The intent to distribute lands free of charge is ineffective at best and duplicitous at worst, in the absence of a new agrarian reform law that will allow the coverage of new private agricultural lands for distribution after CARP’s mandate to do so expired in 2014.”
“As a prosecutor who claimed to have worked as a lawyer of the DAR, she should have known or she should ought to know that an agrarian dispute exists in our case and therefore should have referred the matter to the DAR as repeatedly moved to by our lawyers.”
The plight of Hacienda Tinang farmers brought to mind how land reform and due support continue to evade Filipino farmers.
Ibon Foundation said that the Rice Tariffication Law has never benefited farmers. From P385 billion in 2018 ($7 billion), the value of palay production declined to P333 billion ($6.06 billion) in 2021 despite an increase of 894,076 metric ton in production volume.
“The threat of additional schemes also remains as Noel Villanueva and his minions desperately cling onto the Tinang farmers’ land. We remain vigilant.”
“For 27 years, we have been deprived of our right to till the land. Why is it that we are the ones being treated as criminals here?”
“Planting food and supporting farmers are no mischief, and the right to assembly is guaranteed by the highest law in the land.”
“Deprived farmers are faced with violent reprisal when they assert their rightful claim to land. This exposes CARP as instrumental to landlords while the majority of our farmers remain landless, poor, and hungry.”