BMFI

The Sumilao farmers on 'World Food Day'
16 October 2007

[Sent as letter to the editor to Cagayan de Oro newspapers]
Reference: Oliver E. Villa (09177061263) (738402), BALAOD-Mindanaw

As the world celebrates the World Food Day today, the Sumilao farmers are still in pain as they continue their seventh day of walk to Malacañang to reclaim their 144 hectares of land.

Significantly, the renewed protest of the Sumilao farmers coincided with this year's theme of World Food Day, which is “The Right to Food.”  According to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the right to food is a universal right.  It means that every person – woman, man and child – must have access at all times to food, or to means for the procurement of food, that is sufficient in quality, quantity and variety to meet their needs, is free from harmful substances and is acceptable to their culture. 

FAO is an International Organization of the United Nations which is mandated to to raise levels of nutrition, improve agricultural productivity, better the lives of rural populations and contribute to the growth of the world economy.

Despite the Philippine government's claims of prosperity, it is a dismal reality that majority of the Filipino people still live in dire poverty and hunger, especially in rural areas.  For instance, the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program, which has been touted as a centerpiece social legislation that could address the problem of poverty in rural areas through equitable distribution of ownership of agricultural lands, was not fully implemented.

In the latest data of the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) regarding acquisition and distribution (or LAD) for 2006, only 72% of its target (or 3,826,214 hectares) out of the 5,283,637 has been accomplished.  In particular, in Region X where the Sumilao farmers belong, from 349,351 hectares targeted for acquisition and distribution, 266,636 hectares were covered. 

Aside from failing to meet its target, many are not in actual possession of the farmers, because the landowners adamantly refuse them entry, who most of the times also resort to physical threat, force, and intimidation.  This is what happened to the Sumilao farmers 10 years ago when Norberto Quisumbing Sr. employed violence to prevent them from occupying and tilling the land awarded to them through the issuance of Certificate of Land Ownership Award.

Worse, the CARP will end next year.  Thus, various civil society organizations are coming up with proposals in extending agrarian reform program beyond 2008.  The Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines also supports the call for the extension, review and improvement of CARP, on the ground, among other things, that "God destined the earth and all it contains for all men and all peoples that all created things would be shared fairly by all mankind under the guidance of justice tempered by charity."

The protest of the Sumilao farmers, therefore, should serve as a strong reminder to the Arroyo administration to urgently respond to the fundamental need of the Filipino people of the right to food.  And there is no better way of addressing the same than to fully and seriously implement agrarian reform, as well as its extension, in order to achieve its primary purpose of equitable distribution of the nation's most important resource – land.

The Sumilao farmers are now in Magsaysay, Misamis Oriental.  They have already covered 211 kilometers since October 10 when they started walking from barangay San Vicente, Bukidnon.

They have survived their walk through the generosity and support of the parishes, local governments, and even to the people they meet who gave them a kilo of rice, some amount of money, or by just expressing that they will pray for their safe and successful journey.