8
April 2016
MetroVan Independent News
MVINEWS.COM
FEATURE
Rice Not Bullets
Social & Climate Justice for Filipino Farmers
(After three long months of El Niño drought and famine, 6,000 farmers and Lumads formed a barricade at Kidapawan City demanding food
and calamity relief. On April 1st 2016 they were met with gunfire by the police and military. Migrante BC invites everyone for an emergency
vigil to demand justice: April 3rd Sunday 5:30 at the Vancouver Art Gallery.)
By Chaya Ocampo Go
Filipino Farmers & Chronic Poverty
The people growing our food are
the hungriest. This painful irony has
been reported by the Institute for Food
Development Policy or Food First as the
unchanging prevalence of poverty and
undernourishment in the world despite
the rising levels of global food production
(Lappé & Collins, 2015).
Scarcity is certainly not the problem,
but a systemic injustice in the ways
abundance and wealth are distributed
across political and socio-economic
systems.
Like many agrarian countries in the
Global South, the Philippines remains in
a state of 'permanent crisis’, according to
political economist, Walden Bello (2004).
Our landless farmers are locked in chronic
cycles of poverty by persisting feudal
economies, oligopolies in the rice and
coconut industries, and the stronghold of
landed elites.
The over 6,000-hectare Hacienda
Luisita sugar plantation in Tarlac for
example, remains a sore case for the ill
failings of the country’s Comprehensive
Agrarian Reform Program.
A blockade of striking farm workers of
Hacienda Luisita demanding higher wages
and the implementation of land reform were
gunned down by police and soldiers in
November 2004. Seven farm workers were
killed, 121 were seriously injured, including
children, and hundreds were arrested.
Despite the Supreme Court’s ruling
in favour of the farmers, majority of
the Cojuangco-owned estate remains
unreturned in 2016. A more recent
historical movement is the “KM71 Martsa
ng Magniniyog” or the 1,750-kilometer long
march of 71 coconut farmers representing
nine national farmers’ federations.
November 21st 2014: KM71.
They walked on foot from Davao City
for Manila to demand a just redistribution
of the 71 billion-peso Coco Levy Fund.
Our farmers are the face of the poorest.
Their hands and feet attest to struggles
that are centuries old. As a deep paradox,
hunger is known to many of them who grow
food.
Farmers & the Climate Crisis
Today our farmers are not only the
victims of feudal oppressions, but are
increasingly made more vulnerable
in the context of climate change. On
November 8th 2013, super typhoon Haiyan
(Yolanda)—the strongest storm in recorded
history—ravaged through the central region
of the Philippines. This plunged Eastern
Visayas, a region primarily of fishers, rice
and coconut farmers, into deadlier levels
of poverty.
Farmers lost 33 million coconut trees
in a single day. When entire landscapes
lay dead with headless coconut trees, it is
not surprising that such desperation has
formed what is now ranked as the poorest
province in the country.
Yet, why does armed violence always
follow such crises of survival? The IBON
Foundation reports that Yolanda is “the
most militarized disaster response” (2015,
p. 63). Although the army is dispatched to
oversee order and security in the chaotic
times of post-disaster, reports of ongoing
militarization prove how disaster response
are often acts of state counterinsurgency
in disguise.
But are these just riots, or uprisings?
Farmers of North Cotabato have been
suffering from three months of drought and
famine since January 2016. In fact, a case
of suicide was reported to be linked to the
drought (Maitem, 2016).
As victims of the El Niño heat and the
local government’s neglect to disburse
its calamity fund, over 6,000 farmers
demonstrated in Kidapawan City on April
1st 2016 to demand their promised rations
of rice. They were met with gunfire by the
police armed with M-16s. Left with little
or close to no other means for survival,
starving farmers will engage in mass
demonstrations. When will those in power
recognize one clear fact: Bullets do not
feed the hungry?
Urgent Call for Solidarity Action
Art by Andrei Venal, April 1st 2016.
Our farmers remain in Kidapawan,
and we remain with them ever vigilant. As
members of the Filipino global diaspora,
we invite everyone to join solidarity actions
spreading all across Canada organized by
Migrante BC and its allies.
Our farmers are the face of the
poorest. Their hands and feet
attest to struggles that are
centuries old. As a deep paradox,
hunger is known to many of
them who grow food.
On April 3rd #b