Farmers from Mindanao begin march anew in Bukidnon to Malacanang to call on President Aquino for the serious completion of the government’s agrarian reform program as an anti-poverty measure in the countryside. The Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program expires in June 2014 and the President promised lands to the farmers-benefiaciaries two years ago saying “you will have your land.” (Photo by Bobby Lagsa)
CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY (Mindanao Examiner / May 24, 2014) – Some 300 Filipino farmers – who are beneficiaries of the government land reform program – on Saturday trooped to Malaybalay City in the southern Philippine province of Bukidnon for a long march to Cagayan de Oro City.
The 92-kilometer march is a dramatic show of force and unity to demand the Aquino administration to release their land titles and for the continuation of the implementation of the Land Acquisition and Distribution (LAD) under the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program extension with reforms (CARPer).
Farmers and farm workers belonging to the Alliance of Land Rights Movement in Mindanao (ALARM-Mindanao) said the action is part of coordinated protests across the country to demand President Benigno Aquino to seriously address the sluggish land acquisition and distribution of private agricultural lands owned by prominent landowners given the June 30 deadline of CARPer.
Romeo Brioso, Sr., chairman and spokesperson for ALARM-Mindanao, said many of their members came from Bukidnon and supported by representatives from different provinces of Mindanao.
He said an initial documentation undertaken by ALARM-Mindanao revealed that there are about 10,000 hectares of agricultural lands in Mindanao without Notices of Coverage (NOC) and bulk of these are owned by prominent landowners such as the Ayalas and Consunjis in Davao provinces, the Cojuancos in Agusan del Sur and Lapanday Group of Companies in Davao City, including untitled lands being claimed by the Fortich family in Bukidnon, among others.
“It is quite frustrating that the Aquino administration has no political will to issue NOCs or distribute these lands to the landless farmers,” Brioso said.
In 2012, hundreds of farmers also marched to exert their demands and rights being agrarian reform beneficiaries and were able to get the attention of Aquino who promised them to lands. (Mindanao Examiner)
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