Arroyo Hit for Continued Landlessness, Intensified Poverty Among Mindanaon Farmers

22 years after ‘Mendiola’ peasant struggle

During the march commemorating the twenty second anniversary of the Mendiola Massacre, Gabriela Party-list Rep. Luz Ilagan condemned Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo for ganging up with feudal lords, landed elites, and transnational corporations to deny Mindanaoan farmers their right to land and for the continuing extra-judicial attacks against those demanding a genuine agrarian reform.

“Arroyo’s rule of exempting lands owned by her political allies from distribution guaranteed the continued landlessness among farmers in Mindanao and the worsening of their economic condition,” said Ilagan.

Among those exempted from land distribution during her term was the 1,178-hectare Fortich Farms owned by the family of former Gov. Carlos Fortich. More than 200 CLOA-holding farmers had their hopes crushed of owning the land they till.

The Arcal estate in Barangay Magdug, Davao Oriental, where 17 farmer-beneficiaries are holders of a collective CLOA since 1998, also remains undistributed.

“The peasants’ problem worsened ten-fold when Arroyo included in her ten point agenda the conversion of almost two million hectares of lands in Mindanao to export-oriented agribusiness.”

Davao City, for example, is being gobbled up by banana plantations, which are aggressively expanding their operations and amassing wealth form agribusiness ventures.

Ilagan said that Arroyo’s intensified killings and other extra-judicial attacks discourage farmers from pursuing their rights.

November last year, Vicente Panglinawan, deputy president of Pakisama or Pambansang Kilusan ng mga Samahang Magsasaka in Davao City, and Danny Qualbar, leader of peasant group Compostela Farmers Association, were killed.

In May, Celso Pojas, leader of the Farmers Association in Davao City (FADC) and Peasants Movement in the Philippines, was killed in Davao City.