[asia-apec 1396] [KMP Updates] Action Alert for Philippine peasants - Central Mindanao University (fwd)

[PAN Asia Pacific]

Dear friends,

This is call for support on peasants struggle against an
agriculture university in Mindanao. Read the article below and
understand the suffers that the farmers had gone through all these
years. The government is favoring the reconcentration of lands and
wealth into the hands of the big landlords, compradors and
multinational firms.

Please show your support by sending letters to Chairperson,
Commission on Higher Education. You can use the sample letter given
below or write your own letter. Visit KMP's website and get more
update at http://www.geocities.com/kmp_ph. Or you can easily fill in
form which will be sent to the targeted person in PAN AP website at
http://www.poptel.org/uk/panap/la.htm.

Struggle for land, is a struggle for life.

Jumat M.
Info-Doc Centre
PAN AP

FORWARDED MAIL -------
From: kmp at quickweb.com.ph
Date: 03 Feb 00
Originally To: kmp at topica.com

ACTION ALERT FOR LAND STRUGGLE
Subject:Philippines - 800 peasant families threatened with violent 
    eviction from farmlands inside state-owned school of 
    the Central Mindanao University

Background: MUSUAN is a town in Bukidnon province in the Southern
Philippines,  an agriculturally very productive region with samll
farms as well as  plantations that are producing grains, sugar cane,
pineapples and lately,  exotic cash crops for export.

Big landlord families own most of the farmlands in Bukidnon while the 
landless peasants suffer in poverty. Landlessness is made worse by the 
government's Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) and  other
policies that benefit landlords and foreign corporations.  The
government also owns 3,080 hectares of lands through the Central 
Mindanao University (CMU) in Musuan town for agricultural research. 
This government-owned school is far from a model for social justice and 
acts much like the landlords in violating the human rights of the people 
to feed themselves, to produce food and to food sovereignty.
Before this, the CMU worked harmoniously with the natives and settlers. 
In the early 1970s, it hired a few agricultural workers to till the idle 
lands as part of the government's  efforts to make its corporations
earn some  of their revenues. Many more farmworkers arrived to till
rice for private  firms which temporarily lease land from the CMU.
They settled  peacefully and raised their families in the school
grounds.  When the biggest firm, Philippine Packing Corp., was about
to close in  1984, the CMU initiated an agribusiness project to
combine agricultural  research, training of the university students
and income generation for  the farmworkers. In 1986, the project was
restarted as the Income  Enhancement Program to exploit the idle
lands of the school.  When Dr. Leonardo Chua became the school's
president in 1987, he  turned away from the peaceful coexistence of
farmworkers with the  academic community of students, teachers,
off-farm staff and managers,  and started efforts to remove the
farmers. Chua began branding the  settled farmworkers as
'squatters.' In fact he only wanted to bring in other farmworkers
willing to till the farms without settling and asking the school for
just benefits.  This provoked the farmworkers to organize themselves
into the  Bukidnon Free Farmers and Agricultural Labors Organization
(BUFFALO) to protect their security of tenure. BUFFALO applied with 
the government=92s Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) for the land 
rights of 1,200 hectares of the school grounds. In 1991, the DAR issued 
to BUFFALO certificates of land ownership (CLOAS) for 400 hectares, 
while two other farmer groups, Tamaraw and Limus, got 200 hectares 
each.

The CMU under Chua consequently contested the land transfer in court. 
In October 1992, the government, through the Supreme Court, used 
CARP to exempt itself from the constitutional safeguards for landless 
farmers. The farmworkers opposed the ruling with militant protests
but were dealt with cruelly by the school management. In 1994, Chua
caused private security guards to demolish the houses of the
farmworkers and two peasant leaders were shot dead. 
Chua was succeeded by Dr. Jaime Gellor, and in July 1998, by Dr. 
Mardonio Lao who is also determined to remove the farmworker-farmers. 
Since his first day as chief, he began to press all kinds of legal and 
illegal   tricks to terrorize the three groups of
farmworker-farmers. In sum, Lao is blackmailing the farmers to sign
an agreement for a 'civil law lease' which allows him to order
farmers to vacate the land anytime, keep them out and rent out the
lands to agribusiness firms. Together  with the governor of Bukidnon,
he is using the 1992 Supreme Court  ruling to justify the forcible
eviction of the farmers by private security guards, the military and
goons (even if the ruling merely declares  exemption from land reform
and did not say anything about eviction).  The three farmer groups,
led by BUFFALO, believe that only a leasehold  agreement and a sound
development plan would be fair for all parties.  The leasehold
proposes that farmers till the CMU lands, remit a fixed  portion of
the harvest to the campus and provide indigenous training for  the
agriculture students. Lao, however, rejects any settlement and 
pushes for a monopoly of power, as he convinced the school board and 
already violated an earlier agreement with the three farmer groups to 
negotiate for a leasehold.

President Estrada, who was elected in 1998 because of his promise to 
improve the lives of the poor,is favoring the reconcentration of
lands and wealth into the hands of the big landlords, compradors
and multinational firms. The regime committed itself to the
prescriptions of the IMF, World Bank and World Trade Organization
to privatizate, liberalize and deregulate all sectors of the
economy, including education. Last year, the Commission on Higher
Education directed all state-owned schools such as CMU to raise
their own funds from joint ventures with big business, while this
year the government budget for education was cut in favor of the
armed forces and foreign debt payments. Therefore, CMU=92s effort
to remove the farmers is in line with the government's thrusts. It
is part of the plan of all public agricultural training institutes
(ATIs) to abandon assistance to small farmers and put themselves at
the service of agrocorporations who will use the lands, talents and
government research funds of ATIs for their own profit. Alarmingly,
these government institutions are geared to further promote
unsustainable corporate farming practices that will worsen
landlessness in the country. 

Why the Action Alert?:

The three farmer groups have no hope in the Estrada government to act 
favorably for a just settlement. There is no other way but to actively 
defend their rights because if they would be evicted, the farmers have 
nowhere to go and might be forced to migrate to the cities where they 
would have to live in misery. Most farmlands in Mindanao are
monopolized by the ruling families and even the government admits
it cannot find a place to relocate the farmers. 
 
Yet CMU's administration is ready to repeat the bloody eviction of
1994 and only a determined people will prevent the ruling elite
from defeating the cause of the tillers. BUFFALO, Tamaraw, Limus
and the national movement of landless peasants and farmworkers
Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP) are working to prevent this
meaningless loss of lives and livelihood, and ask for support to
make sure the Bukidnon farmers continue to be able to feed
themselves and the nation as well. Recommended Action:
Please write polite letters to the Commissioner of Higher Education 
asking her to take the CMU to task in assuring the farmers' rights
to lead productive lives in the farmlands of the school. Please ask
the Commissioner to prevent Dr. Lao from evicting the farmers  and to
order the CMU administration to allow them to lease the disputed
lands in exchange for a fair share from their farm produce and to
cooperate with the farmers to draw up a democratic school
development plan.

Please also mail a copy to Dr. Mardonio Lao of CMU.  
(We encourage you to write your own letters. Of course, you can
also use or modify the sample letter below.)

*************************************************************************

Hon.Ester Garcia 
Chairperson
Commissionon Higher Education
DAP Building
Pasig City

Copy:

Dr. Mardonio Lao
President
Central Mindanao University
University Town
Musuan, Bukidnon
Philippines

Dear Madam,

I would like to relay to you my concerns about the eviction 
threat against some 800 farming families from 400 hectares of 
the Central Mindanao University premises. I believe that as a 
farming school, the CMU ought to forge a partnership with the 
farmers because they devoted their lives to make the university a 
real training school for food security of the people.  

I am alarmed that Dr. Lao, the school's president, is using 
undemocratic methods in forcing out the farmers and 
suppressing the opposition among the students, faculty and staff 
of CMU. Lao is reportedly sending private guards to harass the 
farmers and scare the students who might sympathize with them. 
Dr. Lao derisively calls the farmers =93squatters=94 while he would 
prefer big corporations to profit from the land=92s productivity. 

I am aware that the Supreme Court has ruled that the CMU 
lands are in the custody of the state and cannot be alienated and 
disposed. Therefore, I believe that the lands should be used in 
the interest of the majority of Filipinos, the peasants. You will 
certainly agree with me that laws should serve the people and 
should not be tools that add to poverty, suffering and conflict. 

I simply ask that the farmers be given the fullest sense of justice 
and fairness, because they have already respected the ruling and 
they deserve the guarantee of equitable sharing of the nation's 
wealth.Therefore, I support the request of the BUFFALO, 
Tamaraw and Limus groups of farmers to be given first priority 
in leasing the CMU farmlands. I ask for the withdrawal of all 
armed guards from the farmers' lands and for a just and fair 
settlement of the conflict in the interest of the farmers. Please 
instruct CMU's administration to take immediate and  appropriate
action.

I would greatly appreciate you keeping me informed about any 
future developments in this case.

Yours sincerely,




***********************************************************************

If you can still write to the following people, please do so 
because they can urge the administrators to sit down in a fair 
negotiation with the farmer groups. Letters by post and fax are 
preferred but you may send e-mail instead to save on postage 
and fax charges. 

Rep. Abdullah S. Mangotara
Chairperson
Committee on Agrarian Reform
Congress of the Philippines
House of Representatives
Batasan Hills, Quezon City, 
Philippines
Fax (632) 931-6888

Rep. Dante Liban
Chairperson
House Committee on Higher Education
House of Representatives
Quezon City, Philippines
Fax (632) 9514333

Senator Teresita Aquino Oreta
Chairperson
Senate Committee on Higher and Technical Education
Congress of the Philippines, Senate
Room 516 GSIS Bldg., Financial Center, Roxas Boulevard 
Pasay City
Email: legis at i-manila.com.ph


Please inform KMP about any response to your letters by 
sending an email to kmp at quickweb.com.ph. Visit the KMP 
website at http://www.geocities.com/kmp_ph/ for more details 
and updates. 

--- Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP) 
Peasant Movement of the Philippines 
URL: http://www.geocities.com/kmp_ph 

Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP) 
Peasant Movement of the Philippines 
http://www.geocities.com/kmp_ph
Reactions: kmp at quickweb.com.ph
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