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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."
Indeed, there is a need, as the Asia Peasant Coalition puts it, for the farmers “to organize and mobilize for our own people’s summit together with other marginalized and oppressed sectors that suffer the gravest hunger and poverty because of imperialist control and domination over the world’s food and agriculture.”
Joseph Canlas is a peasant leader and community organizer based in Central Luzon, where he led various campaigns and struggles against landgrabbing and land-use conversion in many farming communities in the region.
The stories in Sitio Compra and Sitio Buntog share many sad parallels. They are both stories of land-use conversion and violence against the nation’s dwindling agricultural communities. While peasants clamor for land reform, the Philippine government has deemed land-use conversion by large corporations as an acceptable substitute.
“The DAR should be more proactive in resolving land dispute cases, especially when the entities involved employ violence and terror. In this case, instead of protecting the farmers and ensuring their right to the land, DAR watched from afar. The hands of DAR Secretary John Castriciones are stained with blood."
“The only thing we can pass on to our children is our land. We already lost everything else. We have nothing left to lose. Why should we be afraid?”
“Royal Mollucan and their Villar bosses should drop the trumped-up charges against the farmers. They should stop tormenting the farmers and let them plant and harvest their crops in peace.”
“Duterte can easily surpass the gruesome record of previous administrations in terms of peasant killings and massacres."
“The situation of Filipino peasants when they marched from Central Luzon to Mendiola in 1987 remains unchanged, and even worse this 2021, especially with the rising cases of peasant massacres and mass killings under the Duterte administration.” - KMP
Farmers in Buntog have been struggling for decades to assert their rights to the land, which they and their ancestors have lived in since 1911.
“This is a big victory for us because we were able to defend our rights to the land that our families have owned for generations.”
The season of advent calls us to continue to participate in the establishment of God’s kingdom in the here and now of the Philippine society, to be firm in our resolve to live in righteousness by being vigilant, ever awake and responsible of our God given duties to nurture and protect his household – the Philippine society from the evil schemes of the fake “Lords.”
“The strict lockdown crippled us. On top of the ongoing militarization in our community, it is difficult to survive. Many of us only have a handful of our produce.”
Reports from Samahan ng Mamamayang Nagkakaisa sa Sitio Buntog (SAMANA-Buntog) claim that Buntog is being “fenced off”, and goons are destroying farm plots they come across. “They’re even stealing fruits from our trees,” said Jojo de Leon, SAMANA-Buntog spokesperson, in a text message.
All six farmers are members of Samahan ng Magsasaka sa Coral Ni Lopez (SAMACOLO), a farmers’ organization that has been asserting the farmers’ rights to the 233-hectare farmland owned by landlord Luis Lopez from Balayan, Batangas.
In particular, two countries, Colombia and the Philippines, continue to top PANAP’s list of deadliest places for land rights defenders.
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