More Groups Oppose Marcos VP bid

MORE GROUPS continue to oppose the vice- presidential bid of Senator Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos, Jr., son of Philippine dictator and namesake Ferdinand Marcos, and called on the public to reject his political ambition.

Many of these groups were former victims of martial law and human rights violations during the Marcos time.

The party- list group Anakpawis also criticized Marcos and declared that the ill- effects of the policies of the dictatorship in agrarian reform and agriculture are the burden that the Filipino farmers continue to bear until present.

It also expressed support to various sectors comprising Campaign against the Return of the Marcoses to Malacañang ( CARMMA) in opposing the senator’s vice- presidential ambition and recalled that the majority sector in the country - the farmers suffered the most during the Marcos dictatorship.

Anakpawis Representative Fernando “Ka Pando” Hicap recalled that the dictator’s major programs included the Presidential Decree No. 27 - the Masagana 99 or the “Green Revolution” program that highlighted high- yielding varieties designed by foreign agro- chemical corporations through the International Rice Research Institute ( IRRI), the imposition of the Coconut Levy Fund.

“The Marcos dictatorship chained the Filipino peasantry to the monopoly of agro- chem foreign corporations, instrumental to their bankruptcy and consequential loss of lands,” Hicap said, adding, the introduction of agro- chemical agriculture resulted irreparable damage to biodiversity and environment.

“We will never forget golden kuhol ( apple snail) that the Marcos dictatorship unleashed in the countryside, so that farmers would be compelled to combat them with pesticides manufactured by foreign agro- chem corporations. Marcos demonstrated his utmost intellect in scamming coconut farmers through coco levy by his many decrees,” Hicap said.

He said the Marcos family is yet to be held accountable for its catastrophic programs and policies, affecting farmers such as at least 7 million employed in agriculture, including 1 million coconut farmers and 1 million dependents of the sugar industry.

“Martial law imposed by Marcos in 1972 was a period of where all the oppression, exploitation, fraud against the farmers was implemented instantaneously, it is like raising hell against the Filipino farmers,” Hicap said.

“We totally urge Filipino voters of today to oppose Marcos’ vice- presidential bid, denial that his father’s dictatorship was totally immoral is natural of him as son, but his total disregard of the sacrifices, deaths, trauma of the victims is outright inhuman, an unacceptable trait of supposedly national leader,” he said.

Marcos was also one of those lawmakers who tinkered with the proposed Bangsamoro Basic Law for Mindanao and called the BBL a “foolish attempt” by President Aquino in winning peace in the troubled Muslim autonomous region. And substituted the BBL with the so- called Basic Law for the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region whose provisions were heavily modified from the original draft. ( Mindanao Examiner)