Not stealing but survival, says militant farmers’ group

LUCENA CITY—A militant farmers’ group yesterday called the ransacking of stores and warehouses in Leyte province by survivors of Supertyphoon “Yolanda” as “an act of survival.”

In a phone interview, Rafael Mariano, chair of  Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP), said “what’s happening in Leyte is not looting.”

“It’s a clear demonstration of the people’s struggle for survival in the face of government incompetence,” he said.

Desperate for food, typhoon survivors stormed the National Food Authority (NFA) warehouse in Alangalang town in Leyte on Wednesday. At least eight people were crushed to death when the building collapsed.

The survivors took at least 33,000 bags of rice, according to reports.

Mariano chided Agriculture Secretary Proceso Alcala over the latter’s declaration in a recent radio interview that at least 3 million sacks of rice have already been prepositioned in typhoon-ravaged areas.

The KMP leader also criticized Alcala’s declaration that  the NFA and the local government units would have an arrangement for the purchase of rice even through promissory notes to be given to the typhoon survivors.

Willy Marbella, national coordinator of the claimants’ movement Coco Levy Funds Ibalik sa Amin  also called on the Aquino administration to immediately return the coco levy funds to small coconut farmers in Eastern and Western Visayas.