News Release
April 11, 2008
Reference: Rafael “Ka Paeng” Mariano, chairman, KMP and president, ANAKPAWIS party list
 
KMP opposes NFA rice price increase.
Slams proposed “rice emergency”.
 
The militant Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP) at a protest action in front of the National Food Authority (NFA) warehouse in Quezon City opposed the proposal of the NFA and the Department of Agriculture (DA) to increase the price of NFA rice and the proposed declaration of a “rice emergency” by Department of Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez. The group also hit NFA Administrator Jessup Navarro for using farmers as an excuse to raise the price of NFA rice.
According to Rafael “Ka Paeng” Mariano, chairman of KMP and concurrent president of ANAKPAWIS party list, “we oppose the proposal to increase the price of  NFA rice because this would be very hard to consumers and the ones who will benefit from this are the landlords and the rice cartel. The NFA should also stop using us as their excuse to jack up their prices because it is not true that farmers are getting higher profits from this crisis,”
“Landlords control rice production in the country because seven out of ten farmers do not own the land they till. It is the landlords who get the lion’s share of the farmer’s harvest. In the division of harvest there are various schemes that always favor the landlords. Whether it be 70/30, 60/40 or 50/50 it is the farmer who shoulder the work and the expenses. If farmers stand up to this exploitative set up then the landlord will evict them,” said Mariano.
“As for the proposed declaration of a rice emergency, this is uncalled for because the government now has enough powers to stop the rice crisis by simply imposing rice price controls and increasing the local procurement of rice by the NFA. We see this new proposal by DOJ Sec. Gonzalez as a way of testing the waters to see if they can add another repressive tool to the regime’s arsenal. At first, they may target the so-called unscrupulous traders but there is no telling who will they target next, more likely than not they would turn against legitimate protests demanding an end to the rice crisis,” said the peasant leader.
“Besides no amount of declarations of rice emergency or a state of emergency can solve this chronic crisis that is plaguing our country unless we rely on our farmers’ produce to feed the nation. This can only be done if the rice cartel is dismantled and genuine agrarian reform is implemented,” ended Mariano. # # #