Protests planned in Samar, Leyte over Kidapawan dispersal

Groups concerned with the devastating effects of El Niño on farmers and the poor government services in Samar and Leyte are organizing big rallies in the two provinces, sources in the military intelligence community bared yesterday.

While dates of the rallies are yet to be known, one of the sources said the same groups behind the evacuation of lumads from their village and the recent protest action of peasants in Kidapawan City are also behind the antigovernment rallies.

“They are now on the advance stage of the holding of massive protest actions capitalizing on the plight of our poor farmers and the Yolanda victims in Samar and Leyte,” the source said.

The source also said leftleaning groups behind the anti- government campaign in Davao used the same template in organizing the peasants’ rally in Kidapawan City in triggering peoples’ uprising.

The farmers blocked the Cotabato- Davao Highway as a way of demanding rice from the government. The police dispersed them, resulting in two deaths and dozens injured.

Military field commanders based in Davao region identified one of the arrested protesters as a squad leader of the New People’s Army.

Meanwhile, Social Welfare Secretary Corazon Soliman yesterday called on politicians gunning for elective positions not to use the poor and hungry for harmful political gimmickry during the campaign.

Soliman turned emotional when she made the call on the sidelines of a conference on conditional cash transfer programs at the Asian Institute of Management in Makati City spearheaded by the United Nations Children’s Fund, International Labor Organization and World Bank.

“To the people, let us not vote for these candidates. They are not yet in the position but they are already using people. What more when they are in power,” she told reporters.

Soliman also called on the public not to vote for personalities who would be identified to have misled farmers to join the rally in Kidapawan City.

“They said that they were told to go there because a sack of rice was to be given away as relief… They didn’t know they were heading for a rally, and that they were going to block a highway,” she said.

She explained that the Department of Social Welfare and Development’s objective in asking about the farmers’ presence in the rally was to check the adequacy of food packs that the DSWD Region 12 gave to local government units affected by the drought caused by El Niño. The food relief was distributed to the barangays.

Soliman said authorities already have the names of local politicians who spread the misinformation among farmers, and the investigation is underway.

But Valenzuela City Rep. Sherwin Gatchalian said yesterday the Department of Agriculture (DA) and DSWD are apparently sleeping on the job of helping farmers hit by the prolonged drought.

He said based on data released by DA as of April 2, the total cost of agricultural damage suffered by the country from the ongoing El Niño phenomenon and several pest infestations reached P6.6 billion, up by 24 percent from last month’s update, which was only at P5.3 billion.

The amount is equivalent to a volume of 520,978 met- ric tons (MT) of production loss, which affected a total of 181,687 farmers and 224,834 hectares, he said.

“Of the total 181,687 farmers affected by El Niño, we would like to know how many have received actual help from the DA and the DSWD, since both agencies claim that they have not been remiss in their duties of giving assistance to these peasants,” Gatchalian said.

The DA reported that a majority of the production loss recorded during the period were from damaged rice crops amounting to P3.3 billion, followed by corn with P2.3 billion from a loss of 201,701 MT due to extreme heat. Damage recorded by other high-value crops also hit P924 million and volume of 89,698 MT.

Gatchalian said he was wondering why Agriculture Secretary Process Alcala chose to downplay the effects of El Niño instead of reporting to the public what the DA had done to help the 181,687 farmers whose farmlands were hit by severe drought.

“I believe that if DA officials only did their job of looking after the welfare of El Niño- affected farmers especially in Mindanao, the protest of some 5,000 farmers in Kidapawan City which resulted in a bloody dispersal could have been averted,” he said.

The DSWD claimed that it has released since October nearly P600 million worth of assistance to local government units. In particular, North Cotabato LGUs were given 13,519 food packs, said the agency.

“It’s crucial for DSWD to strengthen its monitoring to see if indeed the aid it said it gave to LGUs are being transferred to intended beneficiaries and if the amount of such assistance is enough,” he said.