DE GUZMAN: LAND REFORM WILL END INSURGENCY
Labor leader and presidential aspirant Leody de Guzman plans to end the country’s 53-year-old communist insurgency by implementing a “proper and broad-based” land reform program.
“My solution is to respond to the demands of the [New People’s Army (NPA)] as stipulated in their documents. Their demand for true land reform is only just,” the labor leader said when asked on how he plans to end the communist insurgency during the Kapisanan ng mga Brodkaster ng Pilipinas (KBP) presidential forum on Friday.
He noted that although the country has undertaken various agrarian reform programs for decades, previous presidents failed to implement it faithfully and disaffected sectors were forced to take up arms because of prevailing historical social injustice that favored the rich and oppressed the poor, ordinary Filipinos.
Various politicians have vowed to correct social injustices since the Rice Share Tenancy Act of 1933, but most of them were foiled by wealthy landowners who have since remained in control of vast tracts of land across the country.
Impose a wealth tax
De Guzman cited the case of the octogenarian in Pangasinan who admitted stealing mangoes from his neighbor’s land and generated sympathy from Filipinos who pointed out the irony that powerful officials convicted of corruption have not spent a day in prison.
“As long as there is injustice, we cannot stop people from taking up arms. I believe that if we respond to their demands, the [NPA] will no longer have a reason to take up arms,” De Guzman said.
In March 1969, members of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) that was founded just three months earlier formed the NPA and began an insurgency that has become the longest-running communist insurgency in the world.
All previous presidents after Ferdinand Marcos tried various schemes to end the insurgency, but all of them failed.
In the same forum, de Guzman also reiterated his plan to impose a wealth tax on the nation’s wealthiest families in order to help the economy recover from the pandemic.
He said he would resort to a people’s initiative if Congress would not pass the needed legislation to authorize the collection of a 20-percent wealth tax.
“It should go through Congress, but if Congress won’t pass it, we will use the people’s initiative to have this passed into law and we can impose a wealth tax on the rich,” De Guzman said.
He also rejected the mandatory military service, saying the country is not at war.
“I do not agree with methods of war, guns or killings. No one wins in that situation except for the big capitalists who produce ammunition and weapons,” de Guzman said, adding that the government should focus on addressing poverty and climate change.
He also reiterated his vow to impose a unified minimum wage across the nation, end contractualization, and offer more incentives and support to micro, small and medium enterprises.—