Press Statement – May 22, 2009
Reference: House Deputy Minority Leader Satur C. Ocampo, 0917.8226184
For more information: Vince Borneo, Media Relations Officer, 0927.7968198

Satur: Nograles to blame for dispersal of peasant campout

We denounce the violent dispersal by the police of the peasants' camp-out of the Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP) as a repressive move by the leadership of the House of Representatives

The dispersal is uncalled for since the camp-out has been peaceful and orderly. It was a legitimate exercise of the democratic right of the farmers in the past 2 weeks to press for the passage of Genuine Agrarian Reform Bill (GARB).

So-called intelligence reports that there will be a big rally on Monday is no excuse for the House and the PNP to resort to the violent dispersal of the camp-out.

Its deplorable that the police, with the explicit agreement of the House security force, had to violently dismantle the peaceful camp-out of KMP affiliated peasants, with some mothers and children hurt in the process. Speaker Nograles can't escape blame as he declined to intervene, despite my personal appeal to him, saying thru a text message to me, "sorry partner, it's beyond me."

Speaker Nograles full text to Satur: “Yes satur.. All Intel report says that monday will be big rally thats why the camps must be removed per recommendation of house security and police authorities. Sorry partner its beyond me.”

Vincent Michael L. Borneo
Political Affairs Officer
(Media and Public Relations)
Office of Deputy Minority Leader
and BAYAN MUNA Rep. Satur C. Ocampo
Rm. 416, RVMitra Bldg.,
House of Representatives, Quezon City
Telefax no: 951-1057
Mobile: 09277968198

It has been a peaceful camp-out for 39 days, with speeches and cultural programs calling for the approval of the Genuine Agrarian Reform Bill. Above shows an S&T group supporting the farmers. Below is Anakpawis Rep. Rafael Mariano.

Then a fire truck came out of the Batasan compound and positioned itself behind the police forces..

Although the farmers and their supporters put up a vigorous resistance, the police, with their truncheons and shields, succeeded in carrying out the House order of dismantling  and destroying the the front structure and dispersing the farmers who have been rallying peacefully for 39 days to campaign for the Genuine Agrarian Reform Bill. Eight people were injured.

ANAKPAWIS Solon Condemns Violent Demolition of Farmers’ “Kampuhan” and his Temporary Congressional Office
 

Anakpawis Rep. Joel Maglunsod condemns the on-going violent dispersal of the farmers’ camp or “Kampuhan” of the Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP) which is pushing for the passage of the Genuine Agrarian Reform Bill (HB3059-GARB) outside the House of Representatives. Maglunsod’s extension office was put up right after his oath-taking as one of the new batch of legislators.

“Sa kasalukuyan ay may mahigit 30 pulis at mga blue guards na may hawak ng mga truncheons at binobomba ng mga bombero. Pinasok na mismo ng mga pulis ang loob ng tent upang hampasin ang mga magsasaka”

Maglunsod said: “These poor farmers and farm workers are just peacefully expressing their grievances to the government’s failure to address their centuries-old problem of landlessness as Congress’ continuously failed to legislate genuine agrarian reform.” Maglunsod said that this move by the House leadership and the Quezon City Police Department is a direct assault to the farmers’ right to redress their grievances which is supposed to be guaranteed by the laws of the land created by this very institution.

The solon who is temporarily holding office at the camp area, said his office was not spared even by the demolition. “The House leadership which cannot even provide my office as a newly-instated legislator showed no respect to my temporary office set-up at the “Kampuhan”. As a representative of the toiling masses, Maglunsod said he personally felt that his office was transgressed by the House leadership despite prior unities reached by Speaker Nograles that he will not order the dispersal of the campers.

Maglunsod said “This barbaric act is regrettable that the House of Representatives could not tolerate the marginalized peoples’ freedom of expression on Congress ineffective and anti-poor legislations.”

“Don’t they know that this humble make-shift office at the Kampuhan served as a mechanism to receive complaints of farmers coming alternately from various parts of Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao who come to visit Congress to lobby for the passage of HB 3059. I will demand that this condemnable incident be investigated by the Commission on Human Rights and questioned the legality of the dispersal.”

Maglunsod as of this writing went to the site to give assistance to the Kampuhan.” # # #

Pamalakaya (NATIONAL FEDERATION OF SMALL FISHERFOLK ORGANIZATIONS IN THE PHILIPPINES)
KILUSANG MAGBUBUKID NG PILIPINAS (KMP)
National Secretariat Office: 18- A MABUHAY STREET, CENTRAL DISTRCIT, QUEZON CITY, PHILIPPINES
Telefax: 0632-434-38-36 Email addresses: pampil@skyinet.net, themanager98@yahoo.com
===========================================================

May 23, 2009
Press Release
For Reference:
Gerry Albert Corpuz, Pamalakaya information officer, Contact No: 09286581787

Violent dispersal at the Batasan gate
Anti-CARP militants to charge Nograles, top security officials of human rights violations before CHR

Anti-CARP groups led by Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP), the leftwing fisherfolk alliance Pambansang Lakas ng Kilusang Mamamalakaya ng Pilipinas (Pamalakaya) and the Southern Tagalog-based Katipunan ng Samahang Magbubukid ng Timog Katagalugan (Kasama-TK) will file complaints of human rights violations against House Speaker Prospero Nograles and top security officials of the lower chamber in connection with the violent dispersal last Friday.

Aside from Nograles, KMP, Kasama-TK and Pamalakaya will also file violations of human rights before the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) against House Secretary General Atty. Marilyn Yap, Sergeant-at-Arms Brig. Gen. Hortacio Lactao, Legislative Security Bureau executive director Isabelito Flores and the police and security guards who took part in the violent dispersal last Friday.

Reports filed by the human rights group Tanggol Magsasaka said at around 2:30 pm members of the demolition team composed of special action force and security guards under the LSB hosed down the activists defending the camp-out and proceeded in ripping down the structure. The dispersal came at the time Anakpawis party list Reps. Rafael Mariano and Joel Maglunsod were negotiating with Gen. Lactao.

KMP secretary general Danilo Ramos said the camp-out protest was peaceful and the rural people were exercising their democratic rights, but the House leadership under Speaker Nograles and the office of the House secretary general acted in bad faith.

“We were told to remove the right side of the camp-out to allow the people to see the seal of the House of Representatives. We followed that agreement. It seems the militarist quartet of Nograles, Yap, Lactao and Flores were all determined to remove the camp out and terrorize the peasant activists, that’s why they did not honor the agreement and went on with their extreme project of state brutality and state fascism against the well organized and principled farmers and fisherfolk,” said Ramos.

Pamalakaya vice-chair for Luzon Salvador France said the number of protesting farmers and fisherfolk were 150 mostly women, children and elderly people..

During the dispersal, 9 people were seriously injured and brought to East Avenue Medical Center in Quezon City. The injured activists were identified as Antonio Flores, 60, spokesperson of KMP, Marlyn Marbella, staff of KMP, Rommel Forbes, 18, of Nnara-Youth, Oscar Lapida Jr., 47, of Pamalakaya-Southern Tagalog, Merly Ortega of Calatagan, Batangas, Jeffrey Duran, 15 of Cavite, Ronnel Arambulo, 27, member of Pamalakaya-Rizal, Biboy Nayve, 16 and Roldan Padit, 21, members of Anakbayan-Cavite.

“The violent dispersal of rural people as authored and orchestrated by Nograles and his company of political charlatans and militarist hooligans certifies that the House of Representatives is not the House of people’s representatives, but House of agents of state terrorism,” France added.

The Pamalakaya leader said they are studying the possibility of bringing the case before the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) based in Geneva where the same complaints would be filed against Speaker Nograles and company.

“We will teach the Speaker and his attack dogs lessons of a lifetime,” France said.

For her part, KMP vice chairperson and Kasama-TK spokesperson Imelda Lacandazo said the filing of human rights complaints against Nograles and top house security officials will be done on Monday. “We will go the CHR and file this highly explosive charges of human rights violations against Nograles and other stooges of the ruling national security syndicate in Malacañang,” she said.

According to Lacandazo, she received an information that Nograles wants her group, KMP and Pamalakaya demolished by the gates of the House of Representatives, because they are pro-Genuine Agrarian Reform Bill (GARB), and the House Speaker wants peasant groups who are in favor of CARP extension with reforms (Carper) bill to be in Congress next week, because the House leadership is set to pass the extension bill.

“We were dispersed because we are pro-GARB and anti-Carper. Speaker Nograles wants a red carpet welcome for Carper and he does not want our group to be there because we might spoil his super roadshow project for Carper,” the Kasama-TK spokesperson said.

“Are they afraid of the GARB? There’s nothing wrong about HB 3059.. GARB cannot go wrong because its’ real agenda is to achieve social justice for the farmers across the country,” the groups said.

Last Wednesday, the house committee on agrarian reform chair by Rep. Elias Bulut Jr. (Apayao) began its hearing on HB 3059.
KMP’s Lacandazo added: “Let the farmers and the Filipino public decide which between GARB and Carper is genuine, and which between the two bills is bogus, pro-landlord and anti-farmer. Let’s have the debate. If members of this August chamber are afraid of GARB and they prefer Carper, and such could be the reason why they dismantled our camp-out and dispersed us like there would be no tomorrow.” #

Veideo of the violent dispersal of farmers and destruction of their camp-out facilities

by KODAO Productions

KMP Secretary General Danilo Ramos

By ARNOLD PADILLA
Contributor
Bulatlat

MANILA – On May 20, the House Committee on Agrarian Reform finally scheduled a public hearing on House Bill 3059. The proponents of the bill, also called the Genuine Agrarian Reform Bill (GARB), came in full force.

Leaders of the Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP) from as far as Mindanao came to the hearing, ready to convince the lawmakers of the necessity and urgency of the GARB. But time constraints prevented most of them from making their case. The committee vice chairman, Rep. Edgar Valdez of the partylist group APEC, promised to hold another hearing before Congress takes a break on June 6.

That long overdue hearing underscored the problems that the bill has faced since it was filed by the late Anakpawis Rep. Crispin Beltran a few months before his death on May 20, 2008.

Any discussion on the bill, however, should no longer be delayed because GARB has become even more urgent amid the global financial and economic crisis. Implementing genuine agrarian reform now can immediately stimulate domestic economic activity and help address the problem of massive job dislocation.

Those directly and indirectly involved in agricultural production comprise around 70 percent of the labor force. Meanwhile, their combined production accounts for almost 75 percent of the domestic economy. But lack of genuine agrarian reform continues to deprive 70 percent of Filipino farmers of land. (CARP Extension and Reform: Further Agrarian Restructuring for Imperialist Globalization” by Arnold Padilla, IBON Facts & Figures Special Release, Sept. 2007) A very huge portion of the labor force is thus denied access to gainful, secure and sustainable employment.

As a consequence, nearly 70 percent of the poor live in the countryside, and around 90 percent of the rural population live below the poverty line. Consider, too, that around 55 percent of the national population is concentrated in the rural areas. (CARP Extension and Reform: Further Agrarian Restructuring for Imperialist Globalization” by Arnold Padilla, IBON Facts & Figures Special Release, Sept. 2007)

In other words, even before the global crunch, economic activity was already sluggish as a great number of Filipinos is job-starved and does not have the capacity to purchase goods and services.

Genuine agrarian reform can help the country get out of this economic predicament. With heightened uncertainties in the global economy, the key is to promote internal drivers of growth, increase domestic consumption, and invigorate domestic production.

Concrete benefits

With genuine agrarian reform, we can expect a substantial increase in household incomes in the countryside, improving the capacity of rural families to consume. To illustrate, let us take a look at the case of farmers tilling one hectare of land planted to palay in the Southern Tagalog region.

Tight monopoly control by landlords over the means of agricultural production has driven many palay farmers in Southern Tagalog into bankruptcy. It is estimated that they lose P554 ($11.73 based on the current exchange rate of $1=P47.229) to as much as P738 ($15.62) every day during the whole production process. The figures are based on the prevailing costs of farm inputs (fertilizer, etc.), rates of land rent, terms of payment with usurers and buying price of palay.

Land rent in the region is pegged at 15 cavans of palay per hectare while usurers ask for four cavans for every P1,000 ($21.17) in loans. Farm inputs cost around P26,220 ($555.17) per hectare. (Field study in 2008 of KASAMA-TK, a peasant group based in Southern Tagalog, and processed by the Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan); published in “Praymer sa Krisis sa Bigas”, Bayan, May 2008) Using these variables, we can estimate the direct and immediate benefits that palay farmers in the region can gain from genuine agrarian reform.

Palay farmers who own the land but have to settle their loans with the usurers will be able to reverse their losses by P723 ($15.31) to P825 ($17.47) per day when they are not indebted. Meanwhile, landless and indebted palay farmers will be able to turn around their losses by P875 ($18.53) to P986 ($20.88) per day when they own the land and are not indebted.

If government will subsidize, say, 50 percent of the cost of inputs, the farmers’ net income will increase more dramatically. Under such scenario, the losses of landless and indebted palay farmers would be reversed by P984 ($20.83) to P1,095 ($23.18) per day.

In absolute terms, genuine agrarian reform can give palay farmers in Southern Tagalog a daily net income of P282 ($5.97) to P357 ($7.56) for every hectare. It will totally reverse their losses of as much as P738 ($15.62) per day when under tenancy and indebted under usurious terms.

(See table for a summary of the figures and estimates cited.)

These estimates assume the reform will come in a complete package of free land distribution with support services and subsidies to remove palay farmers’ vulnerability to usury.

Overall, there are around two million palay farmers in the Philippines. If 70 percent of them are landless and heavily indebted, genuine agrarian reform will benefit 1.4 million palay farmers or 7 to 8.4 million people nationwide. Around P750 million ($15.88 million) every day will be made available for consumption in the domestic economy. (Fast Facts on Rice” excerpts from 101 Facts about rice in the Philippines by V. Bruce J. Tolentino et al, Nov 2001), accessible at http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/storypage.aspx?StoryId=113366 )

And we have only looked at one agricultural subsector. The reality is that in many areas involving various crops, land rent is much higher and loan terms are more usurious. Furthermore, when farmers no longer face perennial bankruptcy, they will have more incentive to increase farm productivity.

Imagine then the enormous amount of additional income that can be generated and the resources that can be freed up when genuine agrarian reform is implemented nationwide and across agricultural sectors.

From a moral and social justice standpoint, this will allow farmers to benefit from the fruits of their labor and improve their quality of living. From an economic standpoint, this will pave the way for a more equitable distribution of wealth. In the process, it will improve the buying capacity of a great majority of consumers in the country and thus help stimulate economic activity. (Bulatlat.com)