‘GENUINE REFORM!’ Members of the Misamis Oriental Farmers’ Association (Mofa) stage a rally at the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) regional office in Macanhan, Carmen yesterday in time for the 29th anniversary of the government’s Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (Carp). The demonstrators demanded for a “genuine” agrarian reform law. (PHOTO BY NITZ ARANCON)
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By NITZ ARANCON
Correspondent

 ORGANIZED farmers and militants yesterday stormed the regional office of the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) here even as they called on the incoming Duterte administration and the next Congress to ensure the approval of House Bill 252 which they called as the Genuine Land Reform  Bill.

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Protesters staged the demonstration at the DAR office in Macanhan, Barangay Carmen, this city, in time for the 29th anniversary of Republic Act 6657 or the law that institutionalized the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (Carp).

Inerio Ubarde, chairman of the Kilusang Mambubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP) in northern Mindanao, farmers were unhappy because the government has never implemented a no-nonsense agrarian reform program.

“Genuine land reform ang among gikinahanglan, dili ang piki nga Carp,” said Ubarde.

Ubarde called the Carp “fake” even as he pointed out that the country’s poor farmers across the country deserve to be given some 1.8 million  hectares by the government.

The 1.8 million hectares of farmland are controlled by influential, powerful, and wealthy people, said Ubarde, citing records Mofa secured from the Department of Agriculture’s statistics office.

Ubarde cited the farmlands of Bukidnon that are being used by Del Monte Philippines,  and the Hacienda Luisita sugar plantation in Tarlac controlled by the the Aquinos and Conjuangcos.

“Ma-o kini ang buhing kamato-oran kon ngano nga misamot ka dato ang mga kapitalista samtang misamot usab ka pobre ang mga  farmers tungod sa inutile nga Carp” Ubarde said.

The organized farmers and activists said poor farmers deserve three hectares each.

They also called for a halt to land-use conversions, plantation expansions, and land lease agreements.

Joining Mofa were members of the Kabataan party-list, Anakpawis, and Bayan  Muna, among others.

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