Militant join Aloguinsan farmers in protest march

THE plight of the Aloguinsan farmers served as a rallying cry for land reform by partylist groups during the 7th National Congress of the the Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP) at the Cebu Cultural Center in Cebu City yesterday.
A march by farmers and militant groups from Fuente Osmeña to downtown Cebu City was held to dramatize their protest over the planned fencing of a property occupied by the farmers by the Gantuangco family.
Anakpawis partylist Rep. Rafael Mariano said the fencing will be done before the elections.
Mariano said House Bill 374 which called for genuine land reform is pending deliberation in Congress.
Bayan Muna and Makabayan coalition president Satur Ocampo said the march was a message to President Benigno Aquino III that the country’s peasant movement is alive and well.
Mariano also assailed the Aquino administration’s continued dependence on rice imports, saying “it is a fatal disease that slowly kills the country’s rice industry and prevents it from achieving self-sufficiency.” Correspondent Christine Emily L. Pantaleon