AROUND 200 farmers at Barangay La Granja in La Carlota City, Negros Occidental have occupied about 10 hectares of idle and unutilized land on Monday, October 1.
Led by Nagasi Barangay-Wide Farmers and Farm Workers Association (NBWFFWA-KMP), they have cultivated this land to assert their right to till the land, stated by their group leader, Danilo Tabura.
NBWFFWA-KMP is a local chapter of Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas.
This came after the Duterte administration has failed on its campaign promise to distribute the land to the farmers and after his pronouncements that he would launch a land distribution program targeting thousands of hectares of idle private and government land to make these a productive one.
The said land occupied by farmers is part of the 288-hectare property of the University of the Philippines Los Baños College of Agriculture Research and Training Station. However, it has long been idle and unproductive.
We have long been suffering from poverty and inhumane living conditions because 2 up to 5 families are living under one roof. We have no permanent jobs and wages in the hacienda remain low. That is why we are asserting our right to land and housing through bungkalan, said Jury Pangadlo of NBWFFWA-KMP.
The land occupation campaign started way back before President Duterte’s remark to occupy idle lands. In Negros, land occupation and cultivation campaigns started in 2008 and have now reached not less than 200 haciendas covering more than 3,000 hectares wherein thousands of peasant families have benefited, this is the collective reaction of farmers in Negros to the landlords’ refusal to distribute lands.
Land occupation and cultivation campaigns initiated by farmers across the Philippines show the failure of the land reform program of the government and the clamor of farmers for genuine agrarian reform. Farmers militantly occupy idle lands and collectively cultivate these lands for food security, they said.