The Sumilao farmers' case stands out as a living, breathing, walking, sometimes limping and even crawling symbol of the oppressed, exploited and abused landless of the Philippines.
The plight of the peasants --which includes fisherfolks-- should take precedence in the agenda for poverty alleviation and development of the nation. Our country is still an agricultural country and developing our agricultural land remains to be one concrete avenue towards our country's progress.
The Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) which is supposed to be the most revolutionary approach towards the amelioration of the plight of the majority of our poor is also one of the more prostituted projects of government. I have personally seen how 10,000 farmers occupying Hacienda Looc of my hometown of Nasugbu, Batangas have been subjected to the ignominy of the Certificate of Land Ownership Award (CLOA) Bigay-Bawi ( Grant- Repossess) scheme of the DAR via the convenient vehicle of conversion of decades-long agricultural land into something else, to accommodate the moneyed land developers.
Re-zoning of agricultural lands into commercial properties is another legalized scheme resorted to by the local government. Of course, there is also the corporative scheme employed by the biggest landowners in the country who grant the farmers what to the latter is a useles piece of Cerificate of Shares of Stocks-- which earns very minimal dividends if it ever does--instead of giving them a piece of land they can cultivate as their own.
This mind-boggling, heart - piercing and gut- wrenching issue of land distribution vis-a-vis the unabated bastardizationof CARP under the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Law (CARL) dovetail with the march of the Sumilao farmers.
With their sturdy barefeet, hopefully, social justice via land reform can start to strike root on our beloved soil.
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4 comments:
First step in social justice: give em all a nice set of Nikes. So they can march in comfort.
The Nikes might give them premonition they would be walking the rest of their lives. Complete it with boots to give them hope they can go back home to till the farm they are fighting for.
More than Nikes or boots, I just want the damn land back. CARP is all blooey. Some grandstanding to make the government look good
This is really very sad and your experience is many times happening still.
May I also add that the AKP is looking at all forms of injustice and wish to get as much help to move them
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