DAVAO CITY, Philippines— After a day’s protest on Thursday, the Department of Social Welfare and Development in this city will give additional relief goods to a thousand of protesting farmers who joined the “Kampuhan sa Dabaw.”
Mercedita Patillas Jabagat, regional director of DSWD 1, said that additional relief goods will be distributed to the farmers on Jan.27, the last day of their camp-out protest here.
“Tomorrow, we will distribute the additional food,” she said.
Farmers staged a protest in front of DSWD to demand additional relief goods after their crops were heavily damaged by floods brought upon due to the week-long torrential rain.
Jabagat said they will also distribute additional relief goods to other flooded areas in the region.
Apart from the additional relief goods, Jabagat said they also asked DSWD Secretary Judy Taguiwalo for extra assistance for the farmers.
“If Secretary Judy Taguiwalo will approve our request, we will give again additional assistance to you,” she said.
Meanwhile, Antonio “Ka Tunying” Flores, secretary general of Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas said that their protest aims to demand help from various government agencies such as the DSWD.
“We urged the government to give us their attention especially the issue on poverty because until now we don’t have our own land to till, this is the number one problem of the country and this has to be answered,” he said.
He said the government should immediately pass the agrarian reform bill which will enable the farmers to own and till their land.
“Since land is the number one problem of our country, we urged the government under President Duterte’s administration to approve the bill because the past administration failed to address the problem,” he said. (davaotoday.com)
