Farm-workers in Pigkacawayan, North Cotabato (Kenette Jean Millondaga/davaotoday.com file photo)
DAVAO CITY – Peasant group Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP) is now reminding president-elect Rodrigo Duterte of his promise to push for land reform.
To fulfill one of his campaign promises, they said the new administration should prioritize the passage of the Genuine Agrarian Reform Bill (GARB)
In a press release on Tuesday, May 17, KMP urged Duterte to certify GARB as urgent. The proposed land reform measure has been pending in Congress for six years now.
‘Peasants strongly clamouring for land reform’
“The peasantry is strongly clamouring for a genuine land reform law that will mandate the free distribution of lands to farmers, dismantle haciendas and land monopolies and stop foreign ownership of lands,” said KMP secretary general Antonio Flores.
Flores told the incoming administration that land reform law is not existing in this country.
“The Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) has no mandate to implement even a bogus land reform after the expiration of Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program Extension with Reforms (CARPer) last June 2014,” said Flores.
GARB or House Bill No. 374 was filed in 2010 by Anakpawis, Bayan Muna, Gabriela Women’s Party, Kabataan, and ACT Teachers’ partylists.
Break up land monopoly, says KMP
One of the bill’s objectives is “to break up land monopoly and implement free distribution of the lands covered by this Act within a period that is just to farmer-beneficiaries and eliminate all forms of oppression and exploitation in the countryside and thereby usher the advent of genuine social justice.”
KMP recalled that Duterte once criticized CARP (Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program), describing it as “a farce and total failure”.
The peasant group also quoted Duterte that under his administration, “no farmer will be displaced from their land.”
On Monday, May 16, Duterte announced that he will be offering four cabinet positions to the Communist Party of the Philippines. Among the departments were Department of Agrarian Reform, Department of Environment and Natural Resources, Department of Labor, and the Social Welfare and Development.
“Recognizing the sincerity of the CPP for genuine social change, Duterte is opening key cabinet posts as part of confidence-building measures with the CPP and NDFP,” Flores said.
“Without any existing program on land reform and the absence of any direct and clear policy declaration on land reform by the incoming President, the DAR portfolio will only be a political ornament in the Duterte cabinet,” Flores added. (davaotoday.com)
