Today, about a thousand farmers marched to Malacañan to call on the Arroyo administration to push for the extension and reform of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARPER for short). Various farmers groups and their supporters from all over the nation converged in Manila to push for CARPER, and even the famous Sumilao farmers once again marched from Bukidnon though they've already been blessed with the return of their lands. However, once again, battalions of police forces were there to prevent the farmers from airing their grievances to the government.
3 days are left before Congress goes on its Lenten break; and it seems as though it would take a miracle for our "busy" and "hardworking" legislators to find time to put CARPER on the agenda. The Resolution they passed last December was an empty gesture, because it stopped compulsory land acquisition meaning no new lands can be claimed by the government on behalf of farmer beneficiaries in the interim period, unless and until a new law is passed giving a new lease on life to the Agrarian Reform in the country. The problem is most of our legislators, or the powerful ones at least, come from the landed elite, the class who owns the land which should be distrubuted to the farmers. Naturally, they wouldn't want their precious land to be given to their former tenants for a measely price.
The farmers will be staying in Manila to clamor for the passage of CARPER. After the lenten break, our politicians will then be too busy with the coming elections, more so since the COMELEC recently declared that the deadline for the filing of candicacy was moved 2 months earlier to accomodate the automated elections. Let's pray that the march of our farmer brothers and sisters will not go to waste. Kalampagin natin ang ating mga Congressman, o kaya samahan natin ang mga magsasaka sa kanilang pakikibaka. Kailan pa kaya matatapos ang pagmamartsa ng ating mga magsasaka?
More to come...
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