WE demand the immediate lifting of Martial Law to end military rule that further oppressed the toiling people of Mindanao. Said year of military rule brought widespread human rights violations and intense militarization in the island. We would like to restate all the atrocities committed by the Duterte Administration against its own people, especially the national minorities (Lumad and Moro) and the farmers.
We believe that through this will help us understand the real intention and effect/s of Martial Law.
It is very unjust to use the ghost or specter of the Marawi siege and issue in putting the whole island under Martial Law. In fact, the main reason why the President declared ML is to give and make leeway for foreign and giant corporations to mine and convert the remaining ancestral lands of the toiling Lumad and Moro’s.
History teaches us that there is no such mining operation nor aid from foreign entity in the past that respected the traditional way of life of our ancestors or brought genuine social development. It is very sad that indigenous livelihood and traditional food security processing is always at risk at the expense of so-called modernization. Alarmingly, said proclamation of the President served corporate interest, to control land and resources, of the exploiting class.
Instead of protecting people’s basic universal right to healthy, sustainable and safe food, communities were heavily bombarded and militarized. The whole community can no longer function normally. It affects the capacity and potential building of their own community when in terms to agricultural production.
Massive cases of human rights violations and other kinds of threat to life and livelihood are experienced daily. These are clear manifestation that the government wants to curtail people’s right to development. A pure evidence of rigid dictatorship and tyranny.
From the start of President Duterte’s rule until March 2018, there have been 535 incidents of different forms of State-sponsored human rights violations and attacks on Lumad schools and communities in four regions of Mindanao, 385 of which or 72 percent were committed during Martial Law.
Therefore, we call to all peace loving people to work hand-in-hand to end Martial Law in Mindanao. We strongly believe that collective action is powerful. Martial Law is not the concrete nor sole answer to both poverty and social unrest. To address said problem means to start resolving food and job insufficiency in the vast countryside.
The government should play its role in promoting sustainable and mechanized agriculture with pro-people orientation. At the same time, it should maximize its resources in creating more opportunities for local farmers and producers for them to be able to establish their own network and marketing. Creation of secured livelihood like just and descent work may help our countrymen to have access to food.
On the other hand, Genuine Agrarian Reform must push into Congress so that all farmers and the country as a whole can have food security not only today but for coming years. It is the best mean to alleviate the country from poverty and hunger.--Philippine Network of Food Security Programs, Inc