MARKET DEVELOPMENT
Farmers’ Group Slams MVP’s Planned Palm-oil Project
Farmers’ Group Slams MVP’s Planned Palm-oil Project
06/06/2013 (Business Mirror) - A militant farmers’ group on Wednesday hit the reported plan of one of tycoon Manuel V. Pangilinan’s business units to establish a 30,000-hectare palm-oil plantation in Davao Oriental province, describing it as “a black eye” to the government’s Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP).
The criticism came after Pangilinan, managing director and chief executive officer of Hong Kong-based First Pacific Co. Ltd., through the conglomerate’s agribusiness unit PT Indofood, reportedly sent a team to Davao Oriental to assess available areas suitable for palm-oil production.
According to Antonio Flores, secretary-general of the Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP), the 30,000 hectares that the government will lease to Pangilinan’s group “spells land-grabbing” to farmers in the province.
“Pangilinan’s newest venture is a black eye to the sham CARP. Another strong testament to the CARP’s anti-peasant and pro-landlord character,” Flores said.
“Where in Davao Oriental will the Aquino administration and Pangilinan get the 30,000 hectares? For sure, they will get this from the lands already occupied by farmers and evict them from their lands,” he added.
The KMP secretary-general also said farmers in the province remain landless due to the control of foreign corporations over vast tracts of lands in southern Mindanao.
Lately, Flores said, the extreme hunger and poverty farmers are experiencing there were exacerbated by the devastation wrought by Typhoon Pablo (international code name Bopha) in early December.
“It is the height of irony that while Davao Oriental farmers are yet to recover from the wrath of Typhoon Pablo, the Aquino administration is engaging in the massive sell-out of vast tracts of lands to big businesses,” he added.
Quoting newspaper reports, Flores said Pangilinan is more interested in palm-oil production because palm trees are more resilient to typhoons.
Pangilinan reportedly said that despite the attractiveness of the banana industry in the country, he is concerned about the impact of weather changes on banana plants.
Flores reiterated his group’s call for the junking of CARP and the implementation of “genuine agrarian reform and the free distribution of lands to landless tillers in the country.”
“In the 25 years of the CARP, the Filipino peasantry remains landless and continue to suffer feudal and semi-feudal exploitation at the hands of big landlords,” he said.
According to Flores, only a genuine agrarian-reform program that will break the monopoly and control of big landlords over vast tracts of lands and haciendas and its subsequent free distribution to landless farmers will address landlessness in the country.
To protest the government’s failure to implement what they consider genuine agrarian reform in the country, the KMP held a camp-out, called Kampuhan ng mga Magsasaka ng Hacienda sa Ilalim ng Hacienderong Pangulo, in front of the Department of Agrarian Reform main office in Quezon City on Wednesday.
The camp-out will end on June 10, the 25th year of the CARP.
Farmers from Hacienda Luisita in Tarlac province, Hacienda Looc and Hacienda Roxas in Batangas province, Hacienda Yulo in Laguna province, the vast haciendas in the Bondoc peninsula, and Hacienda Araneta in Bulacan and Rizal provinces joined in the camp-out.
The criticism came after Pangilinan, managing director and chief executive officer of Hong Kong-based First Pacific Co. Ltd., through the conglomerate’s agribusiness unit PT Indofood, reportedly sent a team to Davao Oriental to assess available areas suitable for palm-oil production.
According to Antonio Flores, secretary-general of the Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP), the 30,000 hectares that the government will lease to Pangilinan’s group “spells land-grabbing” to farmers in the province.
“Pangilinan’s newest venture is a black eye to the sham CARP. Another strong testament to the CARP’s anti-peasant and pro-landlord character,” Flores said.
“Where in Davao Oriental will the Aquino administration and Pangilinan get the 30,000 hectares? For sure, they will get this from the lands already occupied by farmers and evict them from their lands,” he added.
The KMP secretary-general also said farmers in the province remain landless due to the control of foreign corporations over vast tracts of lands in southern Mindanao.
Lately, Flores said, the extreme hunger and poverty farmers are experiencing there were exacerbated by the devastation wrought by Typhoon Pablo (international code name Bopha) in early December.
“It is the height of irony that while Davao Oriental farmers are yet to recover from the wrath of Typhoon Pablo, the Aquino administration is engaging in the massive sell-out of vast tracts of lands to big businesses,” he added.
Quoting newspaper reports, Flores said Pangilinan is more interested in palm-oil production because palm trees are more resilient to typhoons.
Pangilinan reportedly said that despite the attractiveness of the banana industry in the country, he is concerned about the impact of weather changes on banana plants.
Flores reiterated his group’s call for the junking of CARP and the implementation of “genuine agrarian reform and the free distribution of lands to landless tillers in the country.”
“In the 25 years of the CARP, the Filipino peasantry remains landless and continue to suffer feudal and semi-feudal exploitation at the hands of big landlords,” he said.
According to Flores, only a genuine agrarian-reform program that will break the monopoly and control of big landlords over vast tracts of lands and haciendas and its subsequent free distribution to landless farmers will address landlessness in the country.
To protest the government’s failure to implement what they consider genuine agrarian reform in the country, the KMP held a camp-out, called Kampuhan ng mga Magsasaka ng Hacienda sa Ilalim ng Hacienderong Pangulo, in front of the Department of Agrarian Reform main office in Quezon City on Wednesday.
The camp-out will end on June 10, the 25th year of the CARP.
Farmers from Hacienda Luisita in Tarlac province, Hacienda Looc and Hacienda Roxas in Batangas province, Hacienda Yulo in Laguna province, the vast haciendas in the Bondoc peninsula, and Hacienda Araneta in Bulacan and Rizal provinces joined in the camp-out.