News Release
February 20, 2008
Reference: Rafael “Ka Paeng” Mariano, chairman, KMP and president, ANAKPAWIS party list
 
“Gloria is evil! GARB is good!”-KMP
 
            The militant Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP) and the Unyon ng Manggagawa sa Agrikultura (UMA) held a protest action in front of the House of Representatives to highlight the call of farmers for Congress to immediately pass the Genuine Agrarian Reform Bill (GARB) or House Bill 3059 and to call for Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’ s ouster.
 
            According to Rafael “Ka Paeng” Mariano, chairman of KMP and concurrent president of ANAKPAWIS party list, “while it is concretely evident that GARB is good because it will distribute free land to peasants, it is as evident how Gloria is evil when she steals money allotted for farmers and approves projects that displaces them from their lands,”
 
            “The case of the P728 million fertilizer fund scam, the P3.1 billion irrigation scam, the budget of the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) funds that were used to fund a Malacanang front party list named Alliance for Rural Concerns (ARC) are just the tip of the corruption iceberg. Another very clear proof of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program’s (CARP) inutility and the corruption of the Macapagal-Arroyo regime is that since 1988 more than P119 billion has been released for its implementation but still seven out of ten farmers are  landless,”
 
            Meanwhile Rene “Ka Boyet” Galang, chairman of UMA said “Gloria is evil because she is like a pest that has plagued the lives of farmers and farm workers in the countryside. Aside for projects that tries to evict us from the land we are tilling, she has also unleashed the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and their death squads against peasants fighting for genuine agrarian reform, To date more than 54% of all victims of extra-judicial killings are farmers,”
 
            “We are supporting the GARB and calling for the junking of CARP as well as Gloria’s ouster because we believe that genuine agrarian reform can never be achieved when she is in power. If left to her; Gloria will sell the whole country to foreigners,” ended Galang. # # #