“The peasant families of San Jose Del Monte had been tilling the farmlands of Tungkong Mangga even before [API] would be incorporated in 1988,” explained UMA Chairperson Antonio Flores. “DAR’s facilitation of Araneta’s landgrab is unconscionable, and nothing short of criminal.”
Security guards and armed goons opened fire at farmers in Sitio Ricafort, Barangay Tungkong Mangga, San Jose del Monte, Bulacan, according to Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas.
For Christmas, the only ‘aguinaldo’ that the Tartaria farmers wish is to reclaim their land from the Aguinaldo clan.
This collective tilling of land has helped us put food on our table. We no longer need to buy vegetables because we are now growing them in our garden. They are fresh and it is good for our health,”
“Staging a demolition exactly on the day we remember the peasant struggle is the highest form of disrespect.”
Farmers have been reaping debts but they get no sufficient aid from the Duterte administration.
At a disputed land in the province of Cavite, farmers are healing the land from decades of intensive unsustainable farming practices that led to soil degradation. On top of their daily toil of putting food on the table, they are also resisting attempts of eviction.
Farmers group said the proposed P30.46 billion budget for the government’s counterinsurgency arm should instead be used to subsidize food production.
A farmers’ group debunked claims of Agrarian Reform Undersecretary Elmer Distor that “landlords and capitalists” no longer “hold sway over vast tracts of agricultural lands.”
The National Network of Agrarian Reform Advocates (Nnara Youth) said that under the Duterte administration, 42 of the 326 farmers killed and 63 of the 80 political prisoners jailed are women.
“The state’s brutal fascism killed Canlas who was exposed to COVID while in detention and under the custody of the BJMP [Bureau of Jail Management and Penology]. His unjust detention led to the swift deterioration of his health condition.”