“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.”
“With a DDS at the helm of DAR, the prospect of genuine land reform and rural industrialization is now next to impossible.”
Thirty years under a sham agrarian reform program and one year under a progressive agrarian reform chief.
“We in DAR are one with the struggles of the Filipino people.”
The 145-hectare land that was previously awarded under the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program in 1996 was successfully turned over by DAR to MARBAI farmers last Dec. 19. However, the farmer-beneficiaries were forcibly driven out of their own land by about 300 security guards of the LFC.
Colleagues of Agrarian Reform Secretary Rafael Mariano in the progressive movement surprise him on his 60th birthday. Mariano or Kaps/Ka Paeng served as chairperson of the Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas for more than 20 years.
“We call on the DOJ [Department of Justice] to make good their promise of creating a special panel to look into rights violations against farmers in Hacienda Luisita. With the fragile situation in Luisita, this DOJ panel must start its work now.” — Ambala
The Alyansa ng Magbubukid sa Asyenda Luisita (Ambala) complained of the reduction of land being distributed, forcible signing of Application to Purchase and Farmers Undertaking, the unaffordable amortization, and the deployment of several Special Action Forces (SAF) and Special Weapons and Tactics units.
“Deed of title? The DAR did not even show us the land survey and now Aquino promised to give us land titles.” ¬ – Florida Sibayan, chairwoman of Alyansa ng Magbubukid sa Asyenda Luisita (Ambala)
“I think it is horrible to see the priorities of this government, prioritizing the wealthy over the poor.”
BY NOEL SALES BARCELONA Contributed to Bulatlat.com August 11, 2008 – 12:59 p.m. More than a thousand members of peasant groups and supporters have started camping out at the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR), Aug. 11, to protest the cases of land grabbing in the provinces of the Southern Tagalog region. The Katipunan ng mga…