Davao City- After a weeklong march and vigil in Almendras Gym to commemorate the Lenten Season, the farmer groups coming from Davao Provinces, Compostela Valley and South Cotabato will march again tomorrow morning to Congressman Nograles’ Office to remind the House Speaker to keep his promise on the immediate enactment of a law extending and reforming the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP).

While the whole Christian community celebrates the redemption and ascension of Jesus Christ this Easter Sunday, the farmers share the joy and put their hopes that indeed the CARP law to be enacted will be truly for their salvation from long suffering and indebtedness.

“Pagtuo nako human maapud- apud ang yuta,mahuman sad among problema. Dili diay. Abi sad namo kung parentahan namo ang yuta mas makaganansiya mi, mas ningdaku hinuon among utang pagsulod namo ug kontrata sa kompanya (We thought after the land was distributed, our problems would be solved. We were wrong. And we also thought if we would let our land to be rented we could gain, but we have incurred more debts when we entered into a contract with the company),” Ireneo Vasquez, a farmer beneficiary shared.

“Tani ang ila ipasa nga balaod makabulig para makalampos na kami sa amon nga kapigaduhon hindi nga ang mga mangaranun lang ang makahimulos. (Hopefully the law that they will pass will truly alleviate us from poverty and not those who are rich will benefit from it.), a farmer representative from Polomolok added.

The farmers have marched under the sweltering heat of the sun and relied on the aid of the barangays they pass through. Like the infamous Sumilao march, the farmer groups time and again have to take extrajudicial means to dramatize their plight, pining their hope to the legislators who are responsible to the policies that eventually will govern their lives.##

Davao City- As the rest of the population are enjoying the weeklong break for the observation of Holy Week, farmers from Compostela Valley, Davao Provinces and South Cotabato will be reenacting Jesus Christ’s march to Calvary to reiterate their clamor for the immediate enactment of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARPER) Extension with Reforms Bill

The farmers under the Ugnayan ng mga Nagkakaisang Organisasyon sa Kanayunan (UNORKA) are calling for all Mindanao House Representatives’ support for and prioritization of the said bill as Congress reconvene on April 13.
The Catholic Bishop’s Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) on their meeting last March 16 with the President and members of Senate and Congress were assured of the approval of the bill, but the farmers feared the numbers of House Representatives that are needed to pass the law is still lacking.

“There must be a minimum of 120 signatories in order to pass the CARPER Bill but only 84 representatives are reportedly in favor of CARPER bill the extension of agrarian reform law. The farmers have been staging different pilgrimages to fight for their land. From Sumilao to Calatagan Batangas, the farmers never ceased to struggle for land ownership. We are calling for the big bulk of “undecided” representatives to heed our call. Agrarian reform is the heart of the countryside,” Dagohoy Magaway, of Mindanao Farmer’s Development Center (MFDC) said.

As one farmer leader from Mati, Davao Oriental lamented, “Semana Santa o dili, grabe na among penitensiya. Sa pag-apud apod pa lang sa yuta taas taas na nga kalbaryo aang mong maagian. (Lent or not, we have been suffering tremendously. Just for land distribution, we have suffered long enough.).”

The Via Crucis or the stations of the cross are located at the different key areas of Compostela Valley, Mati, Digos and Calinan. The farmers especially those coming from agrarian reform communities from Compostela Valley, Mati (Davao Oriental) will start their walk from April 8 while those coming from Polomolok (South Cotabato) will join the Digos (Davao del Sur) community and start the march on April 10. Farmers from Calinan (Davao City) will wait for them in Ulas and together they would gather for a vigil in Almendras Gym until April 13.##

Biofuel in Mindanao: Feeds who? Fuels what?

The Alternate Forum for Research in Mindanao (AFRIM), a non-government
research and advocacy organization, expresses its concern on the potential
impact of biofuel (also known as agrofuel) production to Mindanao’s
poorest of the poor.

“Huge areas needed to be planted with Jatropha will add up to existing
large tracts of lands already used for monocrop plantations here in
Mindanao. With the growing global demand for biofuel, it will only be a
matter of time before investors eat up the remaining arable lands of small
landowners/farmers in rural communities.” said Mary Luz Feranil, the
Executive Director of AFRIM.

Jatropha, a succulent plant variety locally known us tubatuba, produces
seeds containing up to 40% oil, which can be used as biodiesel to fuel
diesel engine cars. Although it is considered as one of the best
candidates for biodiesel production, long term impact of large scale
production of Jatropha on both soil quality and the environment is yet
unknown.

The United Nations estimates that 60 million people worldwide face
displacement from their lands to make way for biofuel plantations. Many
end up in slums in search of work, others on the very plantations that
have displaced them with poor pay, squalid conditions and virtually no
worker rights. Women workers are routinely discriminated against and often
paid less than men. Even the International Monetary Fund had to admit that
fuel crops pose a threat to food prices resulting in inflation affecting
primarily the poor.

Along with tubatuba, sugarcane has also been identified as vital to the
biofuel program. The Philippines Biofuel Program, authored by Senator Juan
Miguel Zubiri, is patterned after Brazil’s model using sugarcane for
bioethanol production and that of India using jatropha for biodiesel.

“What we want to achieve is a higher standard of living for our people in
the countryside and produce biofuels without being subjected to OPEC’s
$100 per barrel gasoline.” Zubiri said in a press statement.

Feranil, however, pointed out that while Biofuel is among the best
alternative forms of renewable energy, rural communities are faced with a
more urgent problem: food scarcity.

“We are for the promotion of renewable energy. However, compromising a
rural farmer’s access to grow staple crops to pave way for biofuel
production is as good as opting to prioritize a car’s fuel than providing
food on the table.” Feranil added.

Cautionary reports from the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and
Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) indicate that
industrial biofuels will not cut greenhouse gasses, but will put rural
livelihoods and food security of communities at risk.

Likewise, Oxfam, an international NGO based in Europe, is also alarmed
with the possible threat of European Union’s (EU) biofuel promotion on
food security particularly in developing countries such as the
Philippines. In a press statement on its website, Oxfam stated that the
proposed EU policy will only push people more into poverty and will
further concentrate lands in the hands of a few.”

Jatropha oil is vegetable oil produced from the seeds of the Jatropha curcas, a plant native to Central America that can grow in wastelands. Jatropha curcas grows almost anywhere, even on gravelly, sandy and saline soils. It can thrive on the poorest stony soil and grow in the crevices of rocks. The hardy jatropha is resistant to drought and pests, and produces seeds containing up to 40% oil. When the seeds are crushed and processed, the resulting oil can be used in a standard diesel engine, while the residue can also be processed into biomass to power electricity plants.

The plant yields more than four times as much fuel per hectare as soybean, and more than ten times that of corn. A hectare of jatropha produces 1,892 liters of fuel.

Growing crops from which biofuels are extracted could drastically change farming practices and land use in a way that creates even more problems than they solve. Farmland, especially in our archipelago, is a limited resource. Since a ready overseas market for biofuels already exist, and if production turns to be a highly lucrative business, agricultural producers could opt to cultivate crops for biofuel rather than for food.
Development of biofuel plantations must not result in the devastation of the Philippines’ remaining natural forests. The current promotion of biofuels will displace our already threatened biodiversity and further sacrifice our country’s food security needs — and for what? All in the sake of feeding Japanese and European cars.


as posted in: Haribon website

After several pronouncements and promises to assure farmers of their rights for their land, this amdinistration has shown how liars can never be trusted. They have cast the death of agrarian Reform.

Without compulsory acquisition of the land (meaning without forcing these landowners to put their amassed large tracts of land under CARP), the old feudal system remains. The hacienda system where the kapatas or tenants toil the lands while the haciendero gets 60% of the share of the harvest. Inequality remains.


The legislators have killed this social justice program-- the sole social program that would help protect the landless rural poor. Worse, House Speaker Nograles (a Mindanaoan at that), has failed its people when he failed to persuade his fellow legislators in Congress to make a speedy enactment of the pending House BIll 4077 or the CARP Extension with Reforms Bill pushed for by several NGOs, POs and even by the Church.

He even made us believe by making promises that the bill will be signed before 2008 ends. But he had shown were his loyalty was, to his fellow landowners. For them, merely extending it for six months is a victory. Shameless pigs! They wanted more debates when several studies have been presented, debates exhausted which showed how important the program is in abating social unrest in the countryside. They choose not to listen and not to act on it.

And they canceled the compulsory acquisition. As if the ongoing joint- venture agreements in the program is not enough an insult to the farmers. This administration showed their two faces-- while La Gloria acts as if she wanted the program to continue, her sons on the other hand in the Congress assured their family of their huge landholdings.

Right now, the House bIll 4077 and its counterpart in the Senate, the Senate Bill 2666 are in limbo. Meanwhile, agrarian reform extension can take the backseat while the administration and its supporters would have to find way to extend their term. Such an irony!

Non- government organizations or NGOs are considered the "fourth force" (media is the "third force") that check the State on its responsibilities to the different stakeholders.

The peak of the of civil society participation started after People Power Revolution I.With democracy just reinstalled, NGOs were created , advocating different issues.Community organizing and empowerment of the people in the grassroots level became the common goal.

In Mindanao alone, hundred plus NGOs (some with national offices, while other NGOs are just focused here in Mindanao) are in full operation. Mindanao is one of the central "area of struggle" for poverty alleviation and peace and development.

One question commonly asked for NGO workers, is where do these organizations get its finances? Certainly not the government. While some would contend that their are some NGOs "kuno" that were formed by government itself, for the sake of argument here, let me just use NGOs that have its outside funding source.

NGOs get its funding outside, from international funding agencies (FAs). These FAs, depending on their advocacies and concentration, give financial support to the local NGOs. These FAs are either supported by Church- based institutions (i.e. from Presbyterian churches),donors from commercial companies (as part of their corporate social responsibility, i.e. WalMArt), or even foreign governments (such as AusAid, USAid).

The NGOs have partner or assisted communities with their respective projects "for development". Changes to achieve "development" can never be done within a specific time frame. Most of the times, the changes are even beyond or could not be measured. But the FAs have its own "measurement of development" and a specific time frame.


FAs could not support the NGOs for a lifetime. NGOs have to find its own resources or local counterparts to continue its advocacies or it would just wrap up and close doors after its project term. Enterprising (small enterprise development, value added production) is one way but it could not cover all the expenses the institutional expenses NGOs are incurring.

Sustainability is the key to development. But how does the NGO become sustainable? Without FA, does the NGO ceased to exist?

Just last year, financial losses in Europe and US are in the headlines. And with the FAs mostly from Europe and US, the NGOs are also affected. NGOs here in MIndanao are greatly affected. Will these NGOs ceased to exist?