Anakpawis joins Luzon farmers protest vs Noy
MABALACAT CITY — The militant Anakpawis Party-list has joined thousands of farmers from Central Luzon and Southern Tagalog in their protest against President Aquino’s program and policies a few days before his last State of the Nation Address (SONA).
Anakpawis Representative Fernando “Ka Pando” Hicap joined leaders and members of the Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP) in protesting around Quezon City Memorial Circle in front of the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR), Philippine Coconut Authority (PCA) and National Housing Authority ( NH A) .
The farmers waved long streamers demanding end to feudalism, bureaucrat capitalism and imperialism which the groups asserted as fundamental causes of the lingering problems in the country.
“We are not expecting anything positive from Aquino’s SONA as we are certain that it is antipeasant and anti-people. All the problems we are facing with, from worsening landlessness, low wages, demolition of poor communities, pork barrel and gross corruption, to high cost of utilities and inflation, deteriorating MRT, foreign intervention, all of these are symptoms of feudalism, bureaucrat capitalism and imperialism that Aquino is actually protecting and promoting,” Hicap said.
Anakpawis claimed that feudalism is very much alive at Aquino family’s backyard that is Hacienda Luisita in Tarlac.
The President broke his promise by opposing to the last minute the petition for revocation of the stock distribution plan at the Supreme Court, preserving his family’s interest on the lands through DAR’s unjust “tambiolo” (raffle) system of distributing certificate of land ownership awards (Cloas) to farmer beneficiaries, Hicap said.
The group added that Aquino caused the worsening of “landlessness” by implementing Republic Act No. 9700 or Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program Extension with “Ref or m s” (CARPER) until its expiration on June 30, 2014.
Anakpawis said that mass dislocation of farmers took place under Aquino’s term such as the case of farmers affected by 36,000-hectares Clark Green City in Tarlac, 40,000-hectare Yulo King Ranch in Palawan, hundreds of thousands of hectares Mindanao plantations and many more agrarian disputes.
The group claimed that Aquino’s Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP) and hundreds of billions of his hidden “pork barrel” in the 2015 national budget are concretization of bureaucrat capitalism. Aquino’s executive orders 179 and 180, which aim to privatize the more than P70-billion coconut levy funds and assets, is similar to plunder, according to Hicap. Anakpawis claimed that imperialism or monopoly capitalism is the real boss of Aquino and not the Filipino people. “During Aquino’s state visits to foreign countries, it has been his habit to boast that wage levels in the country remain depressed, hence the best conditions for investment and business ventures, and of course his favorite program Public-Private Partnership, which simply means favoring foreign and private corporations though contrary to the public interest such as the onerous contract of the MRT-3,” Hicap said. Anakpawis also accused Aquino of promoting the demolition of urban poor communities to give way to business interests of foreign and private corporations and the destruction of natural environment through the Mining Act and his Executive Order No. 79 that served foreign countries, including China who is encroaching territories in the West Philippine Sea. Aquino has wooed political favor from his US imperialist bosses by subserviently signing the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (EDCA) or transforming the whole country as military base for their geopolitical interest in the Asia-Pacific, Anakpawis said. “On the many issues that hounded the five-year Aquino presidency, only one thing is consistent, he is against the interest of the Filipino poor and an ally of the rich and powerful few. On this very basis that we continue to demand his resignation, for the sake of the whole country,” Hicap said.