The on-going war against illegal drugs and the summary killings placed the Duterte administration in a very precarious situation as it gains infamy. In less than a year in power, Duterte gathered more enemies from the “yellow” liberals to the conservative Catholics.
However, the track of the current programs in the agriculture department slowly starting to deviate from these promises.
We raise our hopes and welcome the positive developments of the Duterte administration, but it is important not to lose sight and focus on substantive points, let us not allow the derailments of international and local reactionaries.
Last week our network, Magsasaka at Siyentipiko para sa Pag-Unlad ng Agrikultura, in partnership with the Ateneo de Davao University’s School of Business and Governance organized the National Climate Conference of Farmers, Scientists and NGO’s.
What happened in Kidapawan was utterly ugly. The turn of events further exposes the current administration’s neglect on our people’s right to food, what is uglier is that those who feed this nation cannot eat.
The government already knew about El Niño as early as last year, which they predicted to be the longest in the past 65 years. In fact, the government declared some provinces of Mindanao under the state of calamity.
Our farmlands continue to bleed. In Southern Mindanao region, three cases of extra-judicial killings happened in less than a week.
During the last quarter of the year, people were preoccupied with decorating their homes, schools, workplaces, and parks in preparation for the holidays.
Earlier last week, while most of us are into the slapping fiasco between presidential candidates Mar Roxas and Rody Duterte, the peasants in Compostela Valley are fighting for their land, fighting for their lives.
Three years ago, our dear province of Compostela Valley and the nearby province of Davao Oriental were devastated by Typhoon Pablo (International name Bopha), damaging billions of properties and claiming thousands of lives mostly of poor farmers in Compostela, New Bataan, Monkayo, Boston, Baganga and Cateel.
