MANILA, Philippines ? A nationwide protest march to highlight President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo?s alleged string of heinous crimes against farmers will kick off in Mindanao on January 10 and end in Manila on January 22, in time for the 23rd anniversary of the Mendiola Massacre, a partylist lawmaker said on Saturday.
Anakpawis partylist Representative Rafael Mariano said the nationwide farmers? caravan was only an ?opening salvo of sustained mass actions for this year leading to the end of the anti-peasant, corrupt, and fascist Arroyo administration.?
?The nationwide march and caravan of farmers from Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao will highlight Ms Arroyo?s string of heinous crimes against farmers, from wide-scale land-grabbing, brazen human rights violations, and unabashed plunder of agricultural funds, among others,? Mariano said in a statement.
Mariano, also chairman of the militant Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP), said farmers, who are set to participate in the caravan, were facing agrarian disputes and victims of human rights abuses.
The Mindanao contingent, he said, would be composed of farmer-victims of Arroyo?s ?Oplan Bantay Laya,? agribusiness projects, and contract growing schemes, while the Visayas contingent would be farmers from Haciendas in Negros Island, Cebu, Bohol, Samar, and Leyte.
Small coconut farmers long denied of their lands and rightful claim over the multi-billion coco levy funds will compose the Bicol region contingent while the Southern Tagalog contingent will be farmers hardly hit by the project Calabarzon that led to the massive land-use conversion and displacement of tillers, the lawmaker said.
Hacienda Luisita farm workers will lead the Central Luzon contingent while farmers from Hacienda San Antonio and Sta. Isabel constitutes the Cagayan Valley delegation.
?This across-the-country farmers? march and caravan will be one for the books in terms of magnitude and intensity. And this will happen under the Arroyo regime,? said Randall Echanis, KMP deputy secretary general and Anakpawis vice chairman.
The nationwide march, Randall said, was also meant to challenge all candidates in the upcoming elections on farmers? demands specifically on genuine agrarian reform.
?We challenge all candidates to include the peasant agenda and genuine agrarian reform, in their respective platforms,? Echanis said, adding that ?The free distribution of lands to the tillers is the only solution to the problems plaguing the Filipino peasantry.?
