Sumilao farmers falling ill from daily marches
By Margaux Ortiz
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 18:15:00 03/17/2008
MANILA, Philippines -- Their spirits remain willing, but their bodies are becoming weak.
After months of marching under the merciless heat of the sun and exposing themselves to the polluted metropolis, a third of the 144 farmers from Sumilao, Bukidnon fell sick over the weekend.
Lawyer Arlene Bag-ao, the group's legal counsel, said 36 farmers have been under medication for a variety of illnesses -- including fever, cough and colds.
“Nine farmers have been taken to the San Juan de Dios Hospital; three have been diagnosed with typhoid fever,” Bag-ao told the Philippine Daily Inquirer in an interview.
The lawyer said their relentless exposure to the heat and rains may have caused the farmers' illnesses.
“They are also adjusting to the city's water quality and the pollution here,” Bag-ao said.
She also said that some of the sick farmers were still insistent in joining the group's Jericho March around Malacañang on Monday.
“They are also adamant in their decision to stay in Manila despite what they are going through right now,” Bag-ao said.
Since the beginning of March, the 144 farmers have been marching every day from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m., and have vowed not to stop until the Palace carries out its order placing back the 144-hectare Sumilao estate in Bukidnon under agrarian reform and re-installs them in the land.
In the Bible, the Israelites, under the direction of Joshua, marched around Jericho once every day for six days. On the seventh day, they marched around the city’s walls seven times and gave out a war-cry which caused the Jericho walls to collapse and allowed the group to charge into the city.
Malacañang’s December 2007 order, which reclassified the 144-hectare Bukidnon property from agro-industrial to agricultural land, is now being questioned by its current owners, San Miguel Foods Inc. (SMFI)., in an appeal at the Office of the President.
The Quisumbing family, which sold the land to SMFI in 2002, intervened in the case by filing a petition for certiorari at the Supreme Court, arguing that their warranties with SMFI when it sold the land were affected by Malacañang’s reclassification order.
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