Hundreds of farmers who marched to Manila from the regions to demand full implementation of the agrarian reform law on Friday vowed not to go back home until after they had met President Benigno Aquino III and heard straight from him that he would complete the program.
The farmers, coming from agricultural estates in Negros Occidental and Mindanao, met Budget Secretary Florencio Abad and Agrarian Reform Secretary Virgilio de los Reyes and other officials in Malacañang Friday.
Mr. Aquino was in Washington for security talks with US President Barack Obama.
The farmers arrived in Manila as Mr. Aquino was leaving London on Wednesday, concluding a three-day visit to promote trade between the United Kingdom and the Philippines and invite more British investors to put their money in Philippine businesses.
Speaking to reporters before he flew to Washington, Mr. Aquino promised to complete the agrarian reform program before the end of his term in 2016.
Mr. Aquino also said he was open to a meeting with the farmers and their advisers from the Catholic Church.
In his absence, however, Mr. Aquino said Abad and De los Reyes would meet the farmers and bishops and submit to him recommendations that could be carried out.
Based on those recommendations, Mr. Aquino said, he would make commitments to the farmers and bishops at his own meeting with them.
Deputy presidential spokesperson Abigail Valte said the farmers’ meeting with Abad and De los Reyes, which was still going after 6 p.m., “paved the way for a better understanding between the two sides.”
Agriculture Secretary Proceso Alcala, Presidential Management Staff chief Julia Abad and presidential spokesperson Edwin Lacierda were also at the meeting.
Those who came with the farmers to the meeting were Manila Auxiliary Bishops Broderick Pabillo and Bienvenido Cortez, former Sen. Aquilino Pimentel Jr., and the leaders of the peasant groups Task Force Mapalad, Pesante, Unorka, Pakisama, Parfund, and of the Association of the Major Religious Superiors of the Philippines and the Department of Agrarian Reform Employees’ Association
Valte said the exchanges between the two sides were “extensive and very fruitful.”
The administration, she said, reiterated its full commitment to agrarian reform. But when asked if the administration made commitments during the meeting, Valte said, “No information on that yet.”
Valte said the administration officials would brief President Aquino on the results of the meeting when he returned from Washington on Sunday.
Earlier yesterday, Pabillo said the farmers had told him they wanted to talk directly with Mr. Aquino to make sure their message would not stop with the Cabinet secretaries who had been assigned to hear them.
“They said they would stay here in Manila and wait for the President to come home and meet them,” Pabillo said.
Pabillo said a Mass for the farmers at Caritas Manila in Pandacan district, where the farmers spent the night of Thursday.
The farmers set off for Malacañang Friday morning.
Pabillo, chair of the National Secretariat for Social Action of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP), said that if Mr. Aquino had time to meet President Obama, he should also make time to meet the farmers—his constituents who produced food for the nation.
“Obama provides weapons but the farmers provide our country with food,” Pabillo said.
The government must give priority to the small farmers instead of the big plantations that produce food for export, such as bananas and pineapples, Pabillo said.
“These plantations and haciendas don’t feed the country,” Pabillo said. “It is the poor farmers who up to now are still fighting for their right to own the land they till [who produce food for the country],” he said. With a report from Norman Bordadora