Progressives blast Mariano’s rejection

By CONG B. CORRALES
Associate Editor

PROGRESSIVE farmers’ groups and human rights advocates here lambasted the powerful Commission on Appointments for rejecting the appointment of Rafael Mariano as agrarian reform secretary yesterday.

They called the CA the “commission of  landlords.”

Ireneo Udarbe, chairman of Kilusang Magbubukid sa Pilipinas in northern Mindanao, told the Gold Star Daily that he and members of his group were disheartened over the rejection of Mariano. But he said it should not stop marginalized farmers across the region from organizing and pushing for a genuine agrarian reform.

Mariano used to lead the Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas.

“Dako ang atong kasubo sa nahitabo kang Ka Paeng apan kabalo man kita nga komiteba kana sa mga agalong yutaan. Nahadlok na sila nga ipatuman ni Ka Paeng ang dapat ipatuman kabahin sa tinuod nga repormang agraryo,” Udarbe said.

Udarbe said the latest rejection of a left-leaning cabinet member should serve as a wake-up call to all marginalized sectors in northern Mindanao and the rest of the country.

She said the message is clear: “The Duterte administration will not usher in genuine change.”

Udarbe said, “Nagpakita lang kini nga dili gyud pro-farmer si Duterte. Dapat magmata na ang katawhan.”

Even though they have yet to meet their regional council, Udarbe called on their local chapters across the region to organize indignation rallies in front of Department of Agrarian Reform offices where their chapters are based.

For their part, Karapatan Secretary General Jigs Clamor said the action of the CA reaffirmed the Duterte administration’s “allegiances to the landlords, oligarchs, and warmongers.”

“The rejection of the appointment of Rafael Mariano is another indication that the Duterte regime is becoming more servile to anti-democratic interests, disregarding the previously agreed commitments on free land distribution during the last peace talks of the GRP-NDFP. He is ridding his cabinet of good, sincere, highly competent and progressive public servants, leaving behind the plunderers, militarists and neoliberal fanatics,” Clamor said.

Sr. Famita Somogod of the Rural Missionaries of the Philippines in nortnern Mindanao, also expressed their disappointment over the rejection of Mariano.

“Ka Paeng opened the bureaucratic institution to the poor farmers who had been unable to access the office. His methods of work embodied the ideals of the institution. It is a pity that instead of welcoming his ways, the government has seen him as a threat to the age-old elitist system that has only benefited the rich landowners,” Somogod said.