MANILA, Philippines -- Two Catholic bishops and several nuns and priests have joined farmers in their hunger strike to urge Congress to extend the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program, whose effectivity will end this month.

Catholic Bishop Broderick Pabillo, chairman of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines-National Secretariat for Social Action-Justice and Peace, said Monday a hunger strike was their last resort, after attending rallies, lobbying at the Senate and the House of Representatives for the approval of Senate Bill 2666 and House Bill 4077 respectively.

"Marami na kaming ginawa. Nag-lobby na kami, nagmartsa na kami, nakiusap na at gumawa ng mga sulat, nag-publish sa newspapers parang walang nakikinig [We have done a lot of things. We have lobbied, marched, pleaded and wrote letters, had our pleas published in newspapers but it seems no one has been listening]," Pabillo said, lamenting what he said were merely promises of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to grant the farmers ownership of agricultural lands.

Bishop Teodoro Bacani has also joined the hunger strike, along with several nuns and priests.

There are several groups of farmers claiming to be agrarian reform beneficiaries, including the Calatagan farmers from Batangas; farmers from Hacienda Yulo in Laguna; and Banasi farmers from Camarines Sur.

Farmers from Hacienda Malaga in Negros Occidental staged a 29-day hunger strike before they got their land while farmers from Hacienda Bacan, owned by the family of First Gentleman Jose Miguel "Mike" Arroyo, are on their 15th day of hunger strike.

The protesting farmers have camped out along Commonwealth Avenue in Quezon City and have only been drinking water. Some have been brought to the hospital after fainting or were suffering from high fever.

Pabillo said he would camp out with the farmers and would occasionally leave for prior commitments such as midnight masses.

In a separate letter to the Congress, CBCP President Angel Lagdameo and Cardinals Gaudencio Rosales and Ricardo Vidal also asked lawmakers for the urgent passage of the bill before the upper and lower House go on recess this December because not doing so would mean "tolerating injustice and unrest."

"Agrarian reform concerns all of us because if it is left unfinished, we would be participants and witnesses to the poverty of millions of our brothers and sisters and to the perpetuation of injustice," they said in their letter, copies of which were emailed to media by CBCP.

"And so we ask, in brotherly appeal, to the members of this Congress to pass before Congress goes on recess the proposed law extending and putting significant reforms on the CARP. Please pass HB 4077 and SB 2666. You need to do this for the millions of farmers who are set to become beneficiaries of the undistributed lands. You need to do this so that they would not experience agrarian injustice as those occurring to the beneficiaries in Calatagan, Laguna, Negros, and Camarines Sur," the letter said.