Farmers call for land, aid and justice in Peasant Month rally

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Hundreds of farmers under Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP) marched to Mendiola today, October 21, to assert genuine land reform, aid and subsidy, and justice to victims of human rights violations.

The protest culminates a month-long nationally-coordinated series of activities for October Peasant Month. The campaign commemorates the signing of Presidential Decree (PD) 27 on October 21, 1972, by dictator Ferdinand Marcos. PD 27 is among the first land reform programs in the country which only covered rice and corn farms. 

The 10-ft. Effigy called ‘Digna’ will again make her appearance. The Higantes, which first took to the streets in July to protest Duterte’s State of the Nation Address, is a symbol of the many giants in the centuries-long struggle of giving back #LandToTheTillers.

Farmers from Cavite, Laguna, Rizal, Quezon and Batangas led by KASAMA-TK arrived yesterday, October 20. Around 200 trooped to Camp Aguinaldo, House of Representatives, Department of Agrarian Reform, and Department of Environment and Natural Resources in a series of protests before this day.

KMP insists that there was never a genuine land reform program, as evidenced by the persistence of huge private landholdings amid peasant landlessness, and the consequent stunting of domestic agriculture.

“The Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) is fundamentally flawed and moribund beyond any reform. After more than three decades, it has failed to put a dent on land monopoly,” KMP Chairperson Danilo Ramos.

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