ADB and WB project to wipe out peasant community

MEDIA RELEASE
July 28, 2009

Manila, PHILIPPINES - In a joint statement, the Asian Peasant Coalition (APC) and the Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP) said it formally launched on July 25 the Philippine event of the “5-month Asia-wide Peasants’ Caravan for Land and Livelihood” in a 311-hectare peasant community in Barangay Tungkong Mangga, San Jose Del Monte (SJDM) city in Bulacan province. They said that more than 200 farming families will lost their land and livelihood and eventually, the whole peasant community will be wiped out once the Metro Rail Transit Line 7 (MRT 7) began its construction at the end of the year.

Two hundred peasants and their advocates joined the event which coincides with the 24th founding anniversary of KMP. Tungkong Mangga Barangay officials, office of Mayor Eduardo Roquero and office of SJDM lone district congressman Arthur Robes joined the activity.

The group said, “The Asia-wide action against global land grabbing will commence in 10 countries in Asia such Sri Lanka, Philippines, Bangladesh, Nepal, Mongolia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Pakistan, Thailand and India with the theme “Stop Global Land Grabbing! Struggle for Genuine Agrarian Reform and Peoples’ Food Sovereignty.”

According to the group, the Philippine event is organized by the biggest and militant rural groups such as the KMP, PAMALAKAYA (National Federation of Small Fisherfolk Organizations in the Philippines), AMIHAN (National Federation of Peasant Women) and UMA (National Union of Agricultural Workers). This was hosted by KMP local chapters such as the Sandigan Samahang Magsasaka (SASAMAG) and Tungkong Mangga Upland Farmers Association, Inc. (TMUFAI).

The Asia-wide caravan is co-sponsored by the International League of Peoples’ Struggle (ILPS) Commission 6 and is organized by APC members and its network in Asia

Historical heritage
“The KMP chooses to launch the event in Bulacan Province because of its historical heritage which could inspire the KMP leaders, members, networks and advocates to advance further its advocacy for genuine land reform.

Bulacan was established in 1578 and is located in Central Luzon (Region 3), north of Manila. The province figures prominently in Philippine History and produced great heroes and revolutionaries. It was also one of the first to revolt against the colonization of Spain (The province is honored as one of the 8 rays of the sun in the national flag).

To continue its legacy, the province gave birth to one of the pioneers to establish KMP in July 1985, who is also a great peasant leader -- Fred Maňaol. During the Japanese period, Maňaol who was a teenager then, courageously joined the Hukbong Mapagpalaya ng Bayan (HMB) and fought Japanese invasion. Maňaol.served as the chairperson of Alyansa ng Magbubukid sa Bulacan (AMB) and later as KMP national council member.

Danilo Ramos, a landless peasant himself, also hails from Bulacan. Like Maňaol, he once served as AMC chairperson and became a prominent peasant leader of KMP and APC.

The SASAMAG also produced four (4) peasant martyrs who died from massacre while defending their land against Gregorio Araneta (a son in law of former dictator Ferdinand Marcos). SASAMAG honorary chairperson, Melencio Caňete, was twice arrested and jailed for more than a year while pursuing their struggle for genuine land reform.

‘Development’ project to wipe out agricultural lands
The rural areas in Bulacan province still depend on agriculture (in the plains) and fisheries (in the coastal areas) as a source of income. Some of the major crops are rice, corn, vegetables, and fruits such as mangoes; and various kinds of fishes and seafoods.

Even in San Jose del Monte (SJDM), a lone congressional district in the province of Bulacan, agriculture is their source of income. Major agricultural crops are leafy vegetables, root crops (cassava), pineapple, mango and coffee beans. Its major income earner of the city is still the swine production whose main producers are big companies like RFM, Vitarich and FELDAN.

Unfortunately, the agricultural lands in SJDM will vanish because a US$ 1.23-billion "Metro Rail Transit 7 (MRT 7)" --touted to be the biggest infrastructure project of the Arroyo administration, will be constructed in a 200-hectare agricultural lands in barangay Tungkong Mangga.

The MRT 7 proposal is a combined 45-km of road and rail transportation project from Bocaue exit North Luzon Expressway (NLEX) to MRT3 at North Avenue-EDSA. The route runs 23 kilometers from the MRT-3 North Avenue station in Quezon City to Commonwealth Avenue, Regalado Avenue, Quirino Avenue extension up to San Jose del Monte, Bulacan. It will have 14 stations that will be connected to a 22-km access road, which is part of the project.

The Universal LRT Corporation is the project proponent of MRT 7. It is a consortium led by EL International Holdings, a member of the EL Group of Companies of Hong Kong. The Company chief executive officer Eli Levin has said that they will finance the project from a combination of a $309-million equity investment and $926-million debt

Of the $926 million, $126 million will be in a form of untied loans to finance the civil works portion of the project. A number of foreign banks have expressed interest to facilitate the loan. The remaining $800 million will be sourced from Export Credit Agencies. The $309-million equity will be equally shouldered by the contractors, multilateral institutions such as the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and World Bank (WB) and real-estate developers.

Under the proposed contract, the government will support the project by making a total of $108 million in advance payments to Universal LRT for 10 years. The construction period is expected to last 3-1/2 years. The Universal LRT will operate and manage the system on behalf of the Philippine government over 25 years while gradually transferring ownership of the system to government in proportion to payments of annual capacity fees.

‘Land reform’ to foreigners
“Let us fight the land grabbing initiated by the Arroyo government. This is the ‘land reform’ that Arroyo is proud of - land is taken away from the farmers and gave it to foreigners.

Last March, President Macapagal-Arroyo said China was interested in leasing 1.2 million hectares of land. This land area alone equals the alienable and disposable public land that the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) had declared, back in 1993, to have been surveyed and ready for redistribution under land reform. Last December, during her visit to Qatar, the President announced the government would explore the idea of leasing at least 100,000 hectares of agricultural land to the emirate. Aside from this, 94,000 hectares of farmland in Mindoro is being leased by Jeonnam Feedstock Ltd., a company owned by South Korea, for 25 years to grow 10,000 tons of corn a year for feed production, “stressed Ramos.

^These are the reasons why we are sponsoring the 5-month Asia-wide peasants’ caravan. We want to register our strongest resistance against global land grabbing. We will fight the foreign ownership of land in our countries. We will continue to inspire the peasants of the world for genuine land reform and peoples’ food sovereignty. We are doing this for our children. ” Ramos pointed out.

Peasant victories
The peasant community of Sandigan Samahang Magsasaka (SASAMAG) has more than 200 farming families, of this, 109 families were awarded as beneficiaries of Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP), a land reform program of then President Corazon Aquino. Gregorio Araneta, a son in law of the late dictator Marcos, is claiming ownership of the land.

The DAR national office ruled on September 28, 1998, that the 311 hectares in Tungkong Mangga were covered by the CARP but the decision has not been implemented by DAR under its head, Secretary Horacio Morales, thus allowing claimant corporations to saturate the area with dozens of hostile security guards and mercenaries. SASAMAG expressed no surprise to DAR's non-implementation of its own ruling since the Estrada administration has consistently proven itself on the side of monopoly landowners like the Marcos crony, Danding Cojuangco.

The peasants’ resistance led by SASAMAG was in its height in 1998. In late December 1998, the SJDM police released from detention lMelencio Canete, chair of the SASAMAG and his deputy, Wilfredo Inocillas who were arrested on December 22 after having been implicated in the killing of a security guard employed by the Araneta clan.

Canete and Inocillas said their release was the result of the local mass actions led by SASAMAG and TMUFAI, a part of the nationwide KMP led peasant struggle for genuine land reform and resistance to liberalization and privatization which deprive them of land and livelihood

Judge Aznar Lindayag, who signed the faulty arrest warrant, hastily ordered the release of the two to forestall a planned march-rally by 300 angry peasants led by KMP and SASAMAG which would have been politically embarrassed the local government and the Estrada administration as the year ends.

Ramos said that, “While we are launching the Asia-wide caravan, we reiterated SASAMAG’s demands such as the implementation of genuine land reform: distribution of the 311-hectare farmland to SASAMAG members and their families who is tilling the land; pullout of security guards and mercenaries from Tungkong Mangga; and payment of damages for crops, houses and farm animals which were burnt, looted, bulldozed, demolished and killed perpetuated by the security guards; and release of all political prisoners, in particular Randall Echanis, the KMP deputy secretary general for external affairs. He is wrongfully implicated in a purge killings in Leyte, the same case filed against Rep. Satur Ocampo of Bayan Muna partylist.”

Ramos further added that’ “the victory of SASAMAG in defending their land is a success that we cherished and we shared with other peasants locally and worldwide. Let us inspire the peasants of the world through our militant struggle for genuine land reform.”

In the afternoon of July 25, 100 peasants from Bulacan, led by KMP, joined the BAYAN (New Patriotic Alliance)-Southern Tagalog “Rural Peoples’ Caravan against Charter Change and Gloria Macapagal Arroyo” at Mendiola with more than 1,000 protesters from Southern Tagalog.The KMP and BAYAN-ST later joined more than.13,000 people that protested Arroyo’s State of the Nations Address (SONA) on July 27. ##