GRP, NDFP urged: Fast-track social, economic reforms
The Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP) on Friday urged the government and the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) to fast-track the Comprehensive Agreement on Social Economic Reforms (CASER) in the third round of peace talks.
While the group expressed support for the peace talks, they also encouraged the peace panels to remember that the farmers and martyrs of the Mendiola massacre sacrificed their lives to achieve genuine land reform and social justice.
“To give justice to farmers and martyrs of Mendiola, genuine land reform should be achieved. The NDFP and GRP peace panels must work doubly hard to reconcile their drafts and realize an acceptable and substantial CASER,” KMP chairperson Joseph Canlas said in a statement.
The slain farmers have yet to get justice after three decades since the massacre.
Thirteen farmers were killed when security forces opened fire as thousands of land reform advocates marched on Mendiola Bridge on Jan. 22, 1987 to urge then President Corazon “Cory” Aquino to implement genuine land reform by distributing land to farmers.
The group said that they want resolutions to the “centuries-old problem” of farmers and people.
CASER is said to be the most important part of the peace talks as it aims to resolve issues on agrarian reform, national industrialization and foreign policy.
“Concretely addressing the most basic problems in rural areas—poverty, landlessness, heavy indebtedness, severe hunger, malnutrition, and inequality in income and wealth distribution — is a necessary first step to achieving peace and development in the country,” Canlas said.
He said that genuine agrarian reform and rural development lay the ground work for farmers’ economic, political, social and cultural liberation.
“Agrarian reform is also a precondition for releasing the potential of productive forces in the countryside and for achieving rural and national industrialization,” he added. RAM/rga
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