News Release
January 16, 2008
References: Rafael “Ka Paeng” Mariano, chairman, KMP and president, ANAKPAWIS partylist
Orly Marcellana, KASAMA-TK, secretary general

“Sec. Gonzalez adding insult to injury on peasant plight!”-KMP

Red alert fails to hamper start of Southern Tagalog peasants' protest march
The militant Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP) lambasted Department of Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez for calling farmers as destabilizers. According to Rafael “Ka Paeng” Mariano, chairman of KMP and concurrent president of ANAKPAWIS party list, “we peasants are the ones feeding the nation but Gonzalez calls us destabilizers. All we want  are justice and land why is the Macapaga constantly demonizing our calls.

“We are the ones who are aggrieved because many of our comrades have been killed and the so-called Justice Secretary even has the temerity to call us destabilizers. He is the one destabilizing the country to justify a more draconian rule. He is indeed adding insult to injury on our plight, nonetheless we will not be cowed,” said Mariano

Meanwhile, despite Sec. Gonzalez' black propaganda that the mass action of peasants under the Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas is a destabilization plot, around 1,000 peasants from Batangas successfully kicked-off the "March for Land, Food and Social Justice" today in Nasugbu town. Led by Katipunan ng mga Samahang Magbubukid sa Timog Katagalugan (KASAMA-TK), the Southern Tagalog chapter of KMP, the peasants condemned Gonzalez for "concocting intelligence reports to discredit the legitimate actions and calls of peasants."

Military operations in Nasugbu began last Monday with members of the PNP and PAF dissuading farmers from joining the protest march. In Lipa town, military men went around schools in a smear campaign against progressive organizations.

"This only shows the desperation of Gonzales and other cohorts of Arroyo to quell the escalating protests of peasants who have grown poorer under the Arroyo administration because of anti-peasant policies and programs. The deployment of numerous police and military in the Metro and the declaration of a red alert in Malacanang proves the fascist stance of the Arroyo government against groups airing their just call for her ouster. The mounting calls for Arroyo's removal from office is clear in the recent survey of the Social Weather Stations where Arroyo's public satisfaction rating has plunged," Orly Marcellana, KASAMA-TK Secretary General, said.

The protest march is aimed at exposing the continued landlessness of peasants after 19 years of the bogus Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program which the Arroyo government is hoping to extend for ten more years. Instead, the peasants are advocating for the speedy passage of the Genuine Agrarian Reform Bill (GARB) filed by Anakpawis Rep. Crispin Beltran.

"The peasants of Southern Tagalog have left their farms for one week to show the real picture of agrarian reform in the countryside. CARP only serves to expedite the reconcentration of land in the hands of the landlords and big businesses," Marcellana noted.

More than 436,208 hectares of agricultural lands in the region are subject to conversion into industrial, eco-tourism, and residential sites thus exempting them from land reform. Nasugbu is the site of the largest land-use conversion (LUC) project in the region, the conversion of Hacienda Looc into the 8,650-hectare eco-tourism spot Harbor Town where an estimated 10,000 peasants and fisherfolk will lose their homes. In Cavite , the Coastal Road 2 Project will displace around 60,000 families, mostly fisherfolk.

"Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo has continued to be deaf to our calls. Instead, she has intensified military operations in the countryside of Southern Tagalog under Oplan Bantay Laya 2 which is victimizing peasants and indigenous peoples. Proof of this is the reestablishment of the Kanlungan Refugee Center where 66 individuals (45 of which are children) who were displaced due to military operations in their communities in Quezon are already taking refuge in front of the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR)..###