Farmers storm P-noy’s house
Farmers’ groups gathered yesterday
in front of President Aquino’s house on Times street in Quezon City to demand the full implementation of the government’s agrarian reform program before it expires in 2014.
The farmers demanded that Aquino himself order the distribution of Hacienda Luisita in Tarlac. They described the move to have administration offi cials meet with them as they march to Malacañang as “lip service.”
According to the farmers, they were
“infuriated” about Malacañang’s move
to talk to the groups going to the Palace. The government is “playing this all too predictable skit where farmers air grievance, Malacañang opens door, government promises, farmers go straight home,” the group KasamaTimog Katagalugan said in a statement.
The protesting farmers said that
through this, the “problem” is solved without changing the current social order.
Instead of demanding an audience with Aquino, who is in the United States on a working visit, the farmers from Bondoc Peninsula in Quezon province staged a rally right in front of
Aquino’s residence. According to the farmers, Bon
doc Peninsula is considered Quezon province’s “hacienda belt,” with more than 16,000 hectares of agricultural land still undistributed after 24 years of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program’s implementation.
Meanwhile, Manila Auxiliary Bishop Broderick Pabillo, Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines-National Secretariat for Social Action, Justice and Peace (CBCP-Nassa) chairman, said Aquino should give due attention to
farmers.
“If Aquino was sincere in calling the people as his ‘boss’ then he should face them. They walked (all the way from their provinces) and paid for their own transportation fares just to talk to him, so out of delicadeza and respect for them, he should
face them,” he said.
Pabillo said the farmers
will not leave until Aquino arrives. The President is reportedly due to return to the country tomorrow.
– With Evelyn Macairan