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“The government’s response to legitimate calls against corruption, poverty, and injustice is intimidation, instead of addressing the issues and problems that farmers and women face every day."
Women farmers in Laguna, reeling from floods that destroyed their rice fields and left them with losses of up to P20,000 ($340) per hectare, are demanding calamity compensation and higher palay prices, as their crops are not covered by insurance and government rice policies continue to draw criticism.
“We are a peasant family. We do not have our own land because my father was only a tenant although we had farm animals and tools. I experienced how difficult the lives of peasant farmers were. We really did not have enough even to cover the basic necessities. I wanted to change that."
"Low inflation means nothing if food prices remain sky-high and wages are still insufficient."
For Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas, the maximum suggested retail price is just a band-aid solution and does not address the root cause of the continued rise in rice and food prices—the lack of support for local farmers, neoliberal agricultural policies, and the importation of cheap rice that undermines local production, as well as the absence of genuine rural industrialization.
“NFA should release the rice from warehouses and distribute it to farmers and fishermen who lost their income due to El Niño instead of making a profit and selling to private traders. Many are already complaining of hunger and loss, so the distribution of aid and compensation should be stepped up."
The latest report from the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC) revealed that Western Visayas is the most affected region with P687.7 million ($12.3M) in agricultural damage, followed by Mimaropa, Cagayan Valley, Ilocos, Calabarzon, and Zamboanga peninsula.
In a decision, a Manila court found "no specific allegation or even a single transaction" that would prove that the bank accounts were being used to fund terrorism.”
“The court’s decision is an affirmation that the allegations made against our organization were based on unfounded testimonies."
Zenaida Soriano, Amihan national chairperson, denounced the freeze order saying that it was arbitrary and they were not given a chance to answer the allegations against them.
“Why would the government launch a National Food Security Summit, if it will only rely on imports instead of boosting local production? The summit should be boycotted because it is organized by those who instigated the food crisis and those who did not address the legitimate demands of rice farmers and food producers.”
“Duterte can easily surpass the gruesome record of previous administrations in terms of peasant killings and massacres."
Amihan said that areas hit by Ambo were the same areas where social amelioration programs of the government have been slow. These are Eastern Visayas, Bicol and Southern Tagalog, where many poor peasant families rely on farming and agriculture for a living.
“Apique’s killing show that military operations continue despite the crisis the country is facing and the ‘preventive community quarantine’ being implemented in the province.”
Amihan urged the local government units and concerned government agencies to ensure that farmers and their families will be protected against displacement and other forms of exploitation by landlords and private traders in this time of crisis.
Farmers’ harvests this year are disappointingly smaller than before – not just in amount but in size also of the grains itself.
As landlessness and other root causes of poverty remain unaddressed, the greatest irony persists: that those who work hard to produce food have nothing to put on their own plates.
“The Philippines is an agricultural country, and we have all the means to grow the amount of food that we currently import.”
By INA ALLECO R. SILVERIO Bulatlat.com MANILA -- The day after their successful National Rice Farmers’ Conference held at the University of the Philippines, farmers from Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao led by the Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP), Amihan –...
Amihan, a national federation of peasant women, awarded President Benigno S. Aquino III with a kalabasa, marking his 100th day in office last October 8.
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