Peaceful Philippine farmers’ protest disrupted by policemen; leaders arrested

Policemen break peaceful protest of farmers outside the Presidential Palace in Manila. 

MANILA (Mindanao Examiner / Feb. 14, 2012) – Philippine policemen in Manila dismantled Tuesday a peaceful protest by Mindanao and Visayas farmers who were urging President Benigno Aquino to complete the government’s Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program Extension with Reforms (CARPER).

The farmers, representing various peasant groups from the provinces of Bukidnon, Davao in Mindanao, and Negros, were holding protest outside the Presidential Palace when policemen arrived and forced their way to dismantle the group.

Many farmers were hurt when policemen dragged them away in front of the new photographers and television crew. Some of the protest leaders were arrested and interrogated.

The farmers from different landholdings covered by the government’s agrarian reform program marched thru sugarcane fields and ranches in Visayas and Mindanao since February 5 until they reached Manila five days later to appeal to Aquino to continue with the program.

The CARPER expires in 2014 and there is still pending one million hectares to be distributed to farmers-beneficiaries. The Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR), the lead agency implementing the program, reported a dismal 41 percent accomplishment in land distribution in 2011.

Farmers from Negros Occidental, Agusan del Sur, Davao, Bukidnon and Batangas have pitched camp at the DAR earlier this week and marched to the Presidential Palace to present their demands.

“Please give us the only thing that matters to our forefathers, ourselves, our children and our children’s children, our land. We know our rights. We are not asking more than what we deserve,” said Task Force Mapalad President Alberto Jayme.

Jayme said the failure of the DAR to distribute the lands to the farmers does not augur well for the success of agrarian reform. “The farmers have nothing left to lose, they have died for the lands that CARPER promised them. The President should listen,” Jayme said.

He asked the President to speak now on a matter that concerns millions of farming families throughout the country. “We are appalled by our President’s deafening silence on CARPER. We feel like he has no heart for CARPER after all of his promises,” Jayme said.

“We are no longer afraid of being imprisoned or hurt in our protest, we are more afraid of hunger that awaits us if CARPER will not be implemented,” he added.