Inequality and Liberal Democracy: A Disturbing Association (tags)
How do we bring fundamental reforms about at a time when organized minorities and disorganized, quiescent majorities appear to be the norm in both the North and the South?
Philippine agrarian reform: Powerful law, ineffectual bureaucracy (tags)
When the original CARP program that was passed under President Corazon Aquino was in danger of unraveling, the peasant movement came together and pushed the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program Extension with Reforms, or CARPER, through Congress in 2009.
Time to act with urgency and determination to improve the lives of Filipino workers (tags)
Philippines: As the country observes the International Labor Day, Akbayan Party would like to draw attention to the inability of the current economic growth to translate into an improvement in the lives of ordinary workers from both the urban centers and the countryside. While the Aquino administration takes pride on the 7.2 % growth rate for 2013, it cannot mask the fact that this growth has been insufficient to curb massive unemployment and poverty.
Filipino Farmers to Aquino: Make Land Reform a Development Priority (tags)
Philippines, March 2014 -- With less than four months remaining before the upcoming “death” of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP)’s land distribution component on June 30 2014, 300 farmers from the Save Agrarian Reform Alliance (SARA) today trooped to Malacanang, calling for a drastic acceleration and overhaul of the implementation of the land reform effort.
On Philippine President Aquino's Midterm Year (tags)
Deeper reforms needed to curb inequality
PHILIPPINES: Akbayan hails farmers’ triumph in Hacienda Luisita decision (tags)
Akbayan Party today congratulates the farmer-beneficiaries of Hacienda Luisita. The decision of the Supreme Court (SC) to order the total distribution of more than 6,000 hectares of Hacienda Luisita unequivocally validates the decades-long struggle of the farmers for agrarian reform. This also serves as an affirmation of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program-Extension with Reforms (CARPER) and outright repudiation of the Stock Distribution Option (SDO).
PHILIPPINES: SC Reversal on Hacienda Luisita, A Triumph of CARPER, Agrarian Justice (tags)
We in Akbayan Party welcome the Supreme Court's reversal of its previous ruling on the Hacienda Luisita case. It is a great victory not only for the beneficiaries but also for every Filipino farmer. Now it is crystal clear, land distribution is the sole, genuine avenue of agrarian reform. Likewise, this decision affirms the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program- Extension with Reforms (CARPER) - farmers must own the lands they till and it is the onus of government to guarantee it.
Chabil Utzaj, economic momentum with social responsibility (tags)
The reactivation of Chabil Utzaj, as a sustainable sugar project, is a great opportunity for Valle de Polochic not only because it constitutes an important pole of development for a rural area with high poverty rates in Guatemala, but also because of its respect for the fundamental rights of the inhabitants of the area, its commitment to the protection of the environment and compliance with the legal framework of the country.
Peasant offensives in Southern Tagalog Despite AFP Militarization (tags)
The Pesante NEWS based in Los Angeles reported today that the peasant movement in Southern Tagalog is gaining ground despite AFP militaization in that region. The PESANTE NEWS also learned that the impoverished masses in the Southern Tagalog (ST) countryside are now organized under a peasant movement with a strong regional center. Provincial chapters have begun to rise anew from the surviving 54 chapters in various levels found in areas with existing cases of agrarian disputes and where the peasant masses are being threatened with eviction. Chapters continue to expand and new ones built on varying levels.
Akbayan to PNoy: leave lasting legacy, finish agrarian reform (tags)
Three days before the commemoration of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform law (CARL), advocates who campaigned for the extension and improvement of the law banded together to call on President Benigno Simeon Aquino III to finish the just distribution of all agricultural lands.
Filipino Workers criticize shortcomings of EDSA 1 (tags)
The Partido ng Manggagawa (PM) and the anti-contractualization coalition KONTRA slammed the shortcomings of EDSA 1 in a symbolic mass action this afternoon. Scores of workers from PM and KONTRA assembled at the Ninoy Aquino monument at the corner of Timog and Quezon Avenues at around 5:30 pm.
ILOCOS PEASANTS TO MARCH IN LAKBAYAN 2010 (tags)
The Pesante Buletin reported today that Ilocos peasants under the banner of Solidarity of Peasants against Exploitation (STOP Exploitation) shall join the annual Lakbayan 2010 March of the Landless from October 19 to 22 to register their support for Justice and genuine agrarian reform. According to NORDIS , the STOP Exploitation Chairperson Avelino Dacanay said over one hundred peasants from La Union, Ilocos Sur, and Ilocos Norte will march in celebration of Peasant Month this October along with other peasant organizations in Luzon.
Excerpts from “How will our People’s War Attain a Qualitative Leap?” (tags)
The Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) has called on us all, to rally around the leadership and exert utmost revolutionary efforts, seizing every moment in our people’s war, to achieve a qualitative development of the revolutionary struggle. This is the call of the hour. At a time when US Imperialism and its European cohorts are facing grave economic and financial crisis, far worse than the Economic Depression of 1930s, our people’s war can seize this opportunity to all-sidedly intensify our struggle and bring the revolution to a new stage of qualitative development.
GIVE BACK HACIENDA LUISITA TO THE FILIPINO FARMERS! (tags)
The Philippine Peasant Support Network(PESANTE)-USA stands solidly with peasant organizations in the Philippines in their call: GIVE BACK THE HACIENDA LUISITA to the farmers! Pesante supports the call of former KMP chair PAeng Mariano . Anakpawis party-list Rep. Rafael Mariano said that Senator Noynoy Aquino’s statement that they will give up Hacienda Luisita is just ruse to further evade his duty to give the land to the farmers. He said the Aquino-Cojuangco family could just convert the estate into other uses (such as the Luisita Mall and the Luisita Industrial Park) to raise money and pay its debts, which do not comply with their obligations under the agrarian reform program. “For generations, the Cojuangcos have benefited greatly from the Hacienda and labor of the farmers. It’s time they give it away, selling it or converting it will only aggravate the problems,” said Mariano.
Filipino peasant leader ambushed! (tags)
Renato Peñas, Vice-President of PAKISAMA (National Movement of Peasant Organizations), was ambushed dead by unidentified gunmen at 11:00 PM Friday, 5 June 2009, on the way to his farm in Sumilao, Bukidnon.
ARROYO's SON LED LOBBY AGAINST LAND REFORM (tags)
The eldest child of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, Rep. Mikey Arroyo of Pampanga province, was the leader of the landlord lobby in the House of Representatives that resulted in the demise of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP), a militant party-list congressman claimed Friday. Rep. Satur Ocampo of the Bayan Muna party-list group said, “In the first all-party caucus in the middle of the year, [Speaker Prospero Nograles] called for an initial straw vote by asking the representatives to stand up. Mikey Arroyo led those who voted against CARP extension.”
PHILIPPINES: Open Letter to the NPA General Command and the NDF (tags)
We, the undersigned, condemn in the strongest possible terms the recent spate of killings of farmers and farmer-leaders in Masbate, perpetrated by individuals identified as belonging to the local command of the New People’s Army.
AGRARIAN REFORM 29 bishops urge Congress to extend CARP (tags)
Twenty-nine Catholic prelates, including Manila Archbishop Gaudencio Cardinal Rosales and Cebu Archbishop Ricardo Cardinal Vidal, have asked the House of Representatives to immediately extend through legislation the 20-year-old Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP). The CARP expires on June 10 this year.
Philippine farmers demand reform and extension of agrarian reform program. (tags)
Philippine farmers demand reform and extension of agrarian reform program. Asian farmers join rally in solidarity with their struggle
KMP-Negros revive calls to scrap ‘flawed’ agrarian reform law (tags)
With the recent death of two farmer beneficiaries and the wounding of several others in Hacienda Velez-Malaga, La Castellana town, Negros Occidental, calls for the scrapping of the “flawed” agrarian reform law has been revived. Claiming that it has not benefited poor farmers but consolidated the stronghold of big landowners, militant groups’ Kilu sang Mang bubukid Pilipinas-Negros, Pamalakaya, and the biggest labor group in the sugar industry, the National Federation of Sugar Workers (NFSW), slammed the “fake” CARP law and will oppose plans to extend it. The three groups also condemned the killing of the two members of Task Force Ma palad (TFM) last Monday saying this shows a “glaring failure” of CARP. However, they also criticized TFM for giving “false hopes” to their members in owning land.
Low Intensity War in Chiapas (tags)
The situation in Chiapas is very tense and everyday it worsens. This letter is an invitation for all of us, in each of our places and in our own way, to do everything possible to stop paramilitary aggressions in Chiapas. Here in Northern California we are organizing ourselves to spread the word as much as possible and pressure the Mexican government through international public opinion. Below you will find an article explaining the situation. Please send it out to as many people as possible. There is also, in Radio Zapatista's webpage (www.radiozapatista) audios from Morelia's Good Government Council and from the autonomous Municipal Council of Vicente Guerrero, as well as recent programs (in English and in Spanish) on the situation.
An Appeal to Philippine President Arroyo (tags)
Stop agrarian violence and killing of farmers! Implement agrarian reform in contentious landholdings!
Pesante-USA Condemns Mass Arrest of Peasants in Quezon. Support ANAKPAWIS Solon call (tags)
The Philippine Peasant Support Network-USA vehemently condemns the mass arrests of peasant leaders in Quezon and support he just call of ANAKPAWIS representative Rafael Marinao’s call that asked the House of Representatives’ committees on agrarian reform and human rights to investigate the arrest of 48 activists and the violent dispersal here on Saturday of protesting tenants.
Philippines: Agrarian violence claims more lives under Gloria Macapagal Arroyo Regime (tags)
Agrarian violence claimed two more lives this month. A leader of Task Force Mapalad (TFM), Rico Adeva, 39, was gunned down by three men as he and his wife Nenita were walking to their home in Barangay Dos Hermanas, Silay City, Negros Occidental on Black Saturday. He suffered seven bullet wounds – in the head, stomach, chest, and hand. Meanwhile, in Davao, the Secretary General of the National Coordination of Autonomous Local Rural People’s Organizations (UNORKA), Eric Cabanit, was assassinated by two masked men while he was in a public market in Panabo last April 24, 2006. His daughter, who was with him when the shooting happened, was also wounded and is still in critical condition.