July 2014 www.cegp.

org
THE NATIONAL
GUILDER
Te Ocial Publication of the College Editors Guild of the Philippines
Renounce
the King of Tieves
Read the statement on page 2
NATIONAL EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE
2014-2016
MARC LINO ABILA
National President
Te LPU Independent Sentinel
Lyceum of the Philippines University-Manila
IAN HARVEY CLAROS
Executive Vice President
Te Torch Publications
Philippine Normal University
CLAUDINE BUENAAGUA
Vice President for Luzon
Outcrop
University of the Philippines Baguio
FRANEL MAE POLIQUIT
Vice President for Visayas
Tug-Ani
University of the Philippines Cebu
ROCHAMAE BIHAG
Vice President for Mindanao
Mindanao Varsitarian
Mindanao State University
ATHENA GARDON
National Secretary General
Te Manila Collegian
University of the Philippines Manila
JIAN CARLO GOMEZ
National Deputy Secretary General
KALasag
UniversityofthePhilippinesDilimanCollegeofArtsand
Letters
JOHN CARLO GASIC
Deputy Secretary General for Luzon
Te Philippine Artisan
Technological University of the Philippines-Manila
LESLEY CARA DELOS SANTOS
Deputy Secretary General for Visayas
Todays Carolinian
University of San Carlos
NUR JANNAH KAALIM
Deputy Secretary General for Mindanao
Himati
University of the Philippines Mindanao
NATIONAL SECRETARIAT
CHRISTOPHER JOHN CHANCO
Te LaSallian, De La Salle University
ANGELO KARL DOCEO
Te Pillar, University of Eastern Philippines
MARY ROSE IGGIE ESPINOZA
Arellano Standard, Arellano University
ELIZABETH DANIELLE FODULLA
Te Manila Collegian, University of the Philippines
Manila
ROSE VALLE JASPE
Te Communicator, Polytechnic University of the
Philippines-Main College of Communication
MICHELLE LADO
Cyber Isko, University of the Philippines Open University
JOANNA MARIE UDARBE
Te Manila Collegian, University of the Philippines
Manila
College Editors Guild
of the Philippines
National Oce
Mailing Address: Room 305, National Press Club
Bldg., Magallanes Drive, Intramuros, Manila 1002
Hotline No.: (+63)936-902-6236
Email: cegphils@gmail.com
Facebook Page: /CEGPNationalOce
Twitter: @CEGPNational
Website: www.cegp.org
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF: Marc Lino Abila
STAFF FOR THIS ISSUE: Liana Acuzar, Paul Carson,
Gianna Francesca Catolico, Ian Harvey Claros, Jan
Wilmer Gasmea, Joanna Marie Udarbe
GUEST EDITORS: Trina Federis, Ayen Eisma
EDITORIAL CARTOONIST: Cristian Henry Diche
COVER PHOTO: John Keithley Difuntorum
For contributions and correspondence, you can reach
us at cegp.newsdesk@gmail.com.
THE NATIONAL GUILDER
Te Ocial Publication of the College Editors Guild of the Philippines
Te College Editors Guild of the Philippines (CEGP), one of the
convening organizations of Youth ACT Now!, supports the impeachment
of Pres. Benigno S. Aquino III on the grounds of culpable violation of the
constitution, betrayal of public trust, and graft and corruption brought
about by the Supreme Court ruling on the constitutionality of the
Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP), and demands persecution
of those involved in the pork barrel scam.
As an alliance of patriotic and democratic tertiary student publications,
the Guild strongly condemns Aquino, together with Budget Secretary
Florencio Abad, for their improper use of public funds for political and
personal gains amidst the severe poverty and chronic economic crisis
experienced by the Filipino people.
Te Supreme Court arms the assertion of progressive youth
groups that Aquino is liable in the pork barrel issue. By declaring DAP
unconstitutional, the high court conrmed that Aquino is undeniably the
Pork Barrel King.
Since its implementation in 2011, Aquinos DAP totaled to a staggering
sum of P142.23 billion from 2011 to 2012 alone. As Aquinos reward, DAP
funds were given to projects chosen by senators who voted for the
impeachment of former Supreme Court Chief Justice Renato Corona. It
is clear that DAP was used for Aquinos political and personal interests.
It is high time for the campus press and the youth to act and further
expose the rotten political system controlled by landlords and big
compradors. It is agitating that while Filipinos continue to suer from
the lack of state funding for basic social services, government ocials
steal from the public coers to fatten their pockets. Te multi-billion-
peso DAP would have been used to provide additional funding for our
education sector, which suered from budget cuts, as well as other
basic social services.
CEGP calls on the Filipino youth to engage in the issue of corruption
and demand justice for the toiling masses and the people. Te youth
must join hands with the other sectors of the society to continue the
peoples struggle for genuine social change and for a clean and honest
government which shall serve the democratic interests of its citizenry.
Renounce the King of Tieves
Te Ocial Statement of the College Editors Guild of the Philippines
on the Impeachment of President Benigno S. Aquino III
In this issue...
News
Student alliance fles complaint against CHED ofcials... page 4
Southern Tagalog youth and students unite in assailing PNoys disastrous term... page 4
CEGP Metro Manila publications gear up for Aquinos fourth SONA... page 4
Feature
83 taong pagwagayway ng bandila... page 5
CARP: 26 years of bogus agrarian reform... page 6
W
e were lured and trapped.
If not for the Aquino sorcery,
tangled in the illusory belief that the Cojuangco-
Aquinos bear the lineage of democracy,
Benigno S. Aquino III would never win. What
happened in 2010 was a mad rush to turn
our backs against the much abhorred Arroyo
regime. It is from this avalanche of Arroyos
condemnation that the people opted for him
and obviously Aquino saw a lucrative avenue
that will benefit his self-preserved interests.
In his four years in the Malacaang, the
nations deterioration has summed to a
larger scale. It is not a surprise that Walang
pagbabago sa ilalim ni Aquino! becomes
a common clamor of the people. With this,
the administration will retaliate posing its
countless figures and charts of pseudo-
progress. However, the Aquino camps
negation of the call is true, there is change, a
deeper introspection of this nations paradox
would say that the Philippines has changed
for the worse. Their figures and accounts of
progress have failed to tender the hungry:
prices spiked unceasingly, corruption
and bribery became common norms, and
irregularities became regular. Thus, the
Aquino camp is again feeding the nation an
illusion from shattered status of the nation.
However, the people are now armed with
vigilance and disgust - and they have nothing
to lose but the man sitting in Malacaang.
Crisis has continually plagued the society.
The current regime becomes an instrument
to continue a rotten system based on the
greed over land and foreign domination.
Aquinos programs spanned through fueling
neoliberal policies that annihilate the local
industry. Now, foreign banks may freely set up
their branches without even minimal Filipino
ownership. In the further advancement of
discriminating the local industry, there have
been moves to revise the 1987 Constitution.
Revisions would dwell on lifting the clause
that bars the foreign sectors to establish a
fully owned business. It is clear that Aquino
favors vicious strangers than his own people.
Despite the administrations parade of
achievements, these were never real to the
Filipino people, if there were any. With the
prices of commodities rocketing and social
services funded with meager subsistence, it is
flawed to say that progress and development
exist, it is bogus to claim such. The plight of
the masses has never improved. In fact, it
even worsened.
In lieu of everything, Aquinos response is
massive privatization of public services. It is
a shame that even the nations national roads
are privately owned. It is also noteworthy that
education and health appear to be more of a
privilege than a right. Wages lie below the line
of survival. As a response, the powers of the
government has not been directed to the vast
majority of the nation and instead becomes
the basis to patronize an acute portion of the
populace the ruling class.
This administration has also paved the way
to the escalation of human rights violations.
To date, still no justice is served for the
Ampatuan Massacre. This years campus
press freedom violations have reached an
additional 185 cases to the existing unsolved
cases. It is noticeable that the stretch of
these crimes is directed to the pacification of
militant and progressive movements.
The country has also been plunged to
a treaty which legalizes, systematizes and
permits outright subservience to the American
dictate the Enhanced Defense Cooperation
Agreement (EDCA). It opens the country to
their military disposal. They are introduced
free and unlimited to the access of our radio
waves. Worse, the Philippine government shall
pay for the expenses they incur throughout
their stay. This is ample proof that the
Philippine puppetry has never ended its show,
the US is not interested in ending it.
Aquino has also utilized the coffers of the
nation into a systematic corruption and
bribery. The unconstitutional Disbursement
Acceleration Program (DAP), which proved
to create a bogus growth, was funneled to
ensure loyalty of his allies instead of funding
the rehabilitation of Yolanda victims. He has
only mechanized a quagmire of decadence.
Ergo, the Aquino regime contains a status
quo that breeds social injustice and
bourgeois chauvinism.
We were lured and trapped by the continuous
illusions that the present system offers, even
more fueled by a corrupt administration.
However, the Filipino people refuse to be lured
and remain trapped. With this in mind, it is
essential to make the first step towards a more
progressive society, and that is to unseat a
corrupt leadership.
EDITORIAL July 2014
3
THE NATIONAL GUILDER www.cegp.org
Refuse to be lured and remain trapped
NEWS July 2014
4
THE NATIONAL GUILDER www.cegp.org
Progressive and militant groups marched from Liwasang Bonifacio to Mendiola in an Independence Day rally
carrying the demand for accountability from those who are involved in the pork barrel scam including Pres.
Benigno S. Aquino III and his close political allies. Photo courtesy of Tudla Productions.
Student alliance les complaint against CHED ocials
National News Bureau
The Rise for Education Alliance (R4E),
along with various youth groups, filed charges
before the Office of the Ombudsman on
June 13 against high-ranking officials of the
Commission on Higher Education (CHED) for
their failure to regulate and control tuition and
other school fees in tertiary education.
R4E filed the case due to CHEDs approval of
287 out of 345 applications for increasing the
tuition and other fees made by private higher
educational institutions for academic year
2014-2015 despite protests of students against
such increases and the agencys inaction
to the complaints filed by students against
impending tuition and other fees increases.
In the 59-page joint complaint-affidavit
filed, charges include gross incompetence,
gross inefficiency, and gross neglect of
duty of officials of CHED including CHED
Chairperson Patricia Licuanan; CHED
Commissioners Maria Cynthia Rose Bautista,
Minella Alarcon, Alex Brilliantes Jr., and
Ruperto Sanggalang; CHED Executive
Director Julito Vitriolo; CHED Regional
Director for National Capital Region (NCR)
Leonida Calagui; and former CHED Regional
Director for NCR Catherine Castaeda.
Petitioners include Sarah Jane Elago of the
National Union of Students of the Philippines,
Marc Lino Abila of the College Editors Guild
of the Philippines, Vencer Mari Crisostomo of
Anakbayan, Charlotte Velasco of the League
of Filipino Students, James Bryan Deang, and
Vincent Sudaria.
Southern Tagalog News Bureau
On June 14, hundreds of youth and
students trooped to the halls of the University
of the Philippines Los Baos in Laguna for the
Hulagpos Regional Youth Summit. Aside from
the caucuses, discussions, and resolution-
building sessions, cultural performances are
also one of the highlights of the event. This
signified the melding of local culture with the
daily lives of the youth.
The most anticipated part of the program,
however, is plate-smashing. Popularly known
as taksyapo wall, it is a symbolism of breaking
the chains of state neglect and impunity
which was Hulagpos central theme.
Paul Carson, event coordinator for Hulagpos
Regional Youth Summit, emphasized the youths
daily struggle inside and outside of schools, as
out-of-school youth are either entering the large
casinos that is the cities or the countryside,
aiding their already-impoverished families in
farming and fishing to make ends meet.
According to Kabataan Partylist, the youths
representative in Congress, more than 300
universities and colleges and 1,299 elementary
and high school campuses will increase tuition
this year. The primary and secondary levels
are reported to be still unready for the K to 12
program, with insufficient number of modules,
classrooms, and teachers.
Everyday, the youth is playing Russian
roulette, with unsure sources of income to aid
their already-toiling families. Meanwhile, Aquino
is busy sipping the money shake he desperately
juiced from the peoples coffers and defends his
allies caught sipping from it, and has engaged in
a war of words with the people, Carson said.
We will smash, literally and figuratively,
these policies that have chained the youth for so
long. Meanwhile, public outrage has increased
over the series of scams and scandals that have
rocked the Aquino administration, proving the
inability of his administration to bring forth
genuine change. This is the deciding factor for
the people to personally take the responsibility
to deliver what this administration promised but
never delivered, Carson concluded.
Southern Tagalog youth and students unite in assailing
PNoys disastrous term
Metro Manila News Bureau
Campus journalists from different student
publications in Metro Manila attended the
first general assembly of the College Editors
Guild of the Philippines (CEGP)-Metro Manila
Chapter to forge unity between publications
on June 28 for the Guilds campaigns and Pres.
Benigno S. Aquino IIIs upcoming fifth State of
the Nation Address (SONA) this July 28.
Campus journalists gathered in the Kamao
Hall of Eulogio Amang Rodriguez Institute
of Science and Technology (EARIST) in
Manila and discussed the current issues of the
Philippine society such as the education crisis,
pork barrel, corruption, and other matters of
national importance.
CEGP National Secretary General Athena
Gardon discussed the national situation and
CEGP-Metro Manila Chairperson Charina
Claustro led the planning of activities for the
Campus Press Freedom Week on July 21-
26 and build up activities for SONA such as
forums, educational discussions, alternative
classroom learning experience, and actions.
We arranged activities such as forums on
State of the Media, Charter Change, and State of
the Youth Address, as well as discussion groups,
study circles, and alternative classroom learning
experience to inform and educate students
from our respective universities on the current
situation of the country in line with Pres. Aquinos
fifth SONA on July, said Claustro.
The general assembly was attended by
EARIST Technozette of EARIST, The Torch
Publications of Philippine Normal University,
The Guidon and Matanglawin of Ateneo de
Manila University, The Manila Collegian of
University of the Philippines Manila, The
Weekly Dawn of University of the East, Ang
Pahayagang Plaridel of De La Salle University,
The Communicator of Polytechnic University
of the Philippines-College of Communication,
The Chronicler of Polytechnic University of
the Philippines-Taguig, and The Philippine
Artisan of Technological University of the
Philippines-Manila.
CEGP Metro Manila
publications gear up for
Aquinos fth SONA
THE NATIONAL GUILDER www.cegp.org
LATHALAIN July 2014
5
83 taong pagwagayway ng bandila
Pagtalakay sa tindig ng CEGP hinggil sa depektibong CJA at represyon sa mga kampus
Gianna Francesca Catolico
Ang Pahayagang Plaridel, De La Salle University-Manila
Sa patuloy na pagtiktak ng orasan at
pagtapak ng mag-aaral sa bawat yugto ng
kanilang buhay-kolehiyo, esensyal ang
pagkakaroon ng substansyal at kapaki-
pakinabang na kaalaman ukol sa lipunang
kanilang kinagagalawan. Upang mahulma
ang kaisipan at kamalayan ng bawat
Pilipinong estudyante, nariyan ang bawat
pahayagan ng pamantasan na magpapatupad
sa layuning ito.
Kung susumahin, ilang dekadang burado
sa bokabularyo at nakabaon sa limot ang
salitang campus press freedom. Ito kasi ang
bangungot ng bawat abusadot tiwaling
administrasyon ng pamantasan at kolehiyo sa
Pilipinas. Malaki ang papel na ginagampanan
ng pahayagan sa pagpapakalat at pagsisiwalat
ng masaklap na katotohanan sa isang
kampus na pinaghaharian ng samut saring
suliranin at nakakakilabot na pangyayari.
Bunsod ng kaisipang ito, nilulustay ng
mapanupil na administrasyon ang kanilang
kapangyarihan, makagapos at makandado
lang ang pahayagang pankampus ng kanilang
pinapatakbong unibersidad o kolehiyo.
Hudyat ng matinding pangangalbaryo ng bawat
mamamahayag pankampus
Isa sa tinaguriang panday ng sunud-
sunod na kaso ng panunupil sa pahayagang
pankampus ang Republic Act 7079 o Campus
Journalism Act of 1991 na pinagtibay noong
Hulyo 5, 1991. Nilikha ni dating Senador
Wigberto Taada ang naturang batas upang
pahusayin at paunlarin ang kalidad ng
mga pahayagang pangkampus sa buong
kapuluan kasabay ng pagbabantay sa
mga demokratikong karapatan ng mga
mamamahayag pangkampus. Pagkalipas
ng isang taon, inilabas naman ang
Implementing Rules and Regulations
(IRR) na binalangkas ng dating Kalihim
ng Department of Education, Culture, and
Sports (dating pangalan ng Department of
Education) na si Armand V. Fabella.
Sa kabila ng mabuting adhikain ng batas,
nananatiling isang papel ng pangarap ang
CJA sapagkat patuloy ang paghahasik ng mga
administrasyon laban sa mga matatapang at
magigiting na mamamahayag pangkampus.
Pagkatapos mailabas ang IRR, naglabas ng
memorandum ang Philippine Association
of Colleges and Universities (PACU) na
pinangunguluhan noon ni Amado Dizon na
Presidente ng Manuel L. Quezon University.
Naglalaman ito ng babala na parurusahan
ang sinumang patuloy na mangongolekta ng
publication fee dahil ang RA 7079 ay hindi umanong
nagbibigay na ng pagsasarili ng mga pahayagan
mula sa kontrol ng mga administrasyon.
Simula noon, hindi makatuwiran ang ibat
ibang mukha ng pang-aapi sa mga pahayagang
pankampus. Nariyan ang wala o hindi sapat
na pagbibigay ng pondo para sa paglimbag ng
dyaryo, paniningil ng kaliwat kanang bayarin,
at pakikipagsabwatan ng administrasyon sa
tagapagpayo ng pahayagan. Maaaring sabihin
na isa ring uri ng manipestasyon ng represyon
ang pag-alis sa pahayagan at pamantasan ng
mga mag-aaral na manunulat ng pahayagan.
Kahit na may batas na tinitingalang sandigan
ng pamamahayag sa loob ng pamantasan
at kolehiyo, walang naghihintay na parusa
sa mga administrasyong walang habas na
bumabali rito.
Paghahagupit sa mga mamamahayag pankampus,
bunga ng bunging CJA
Hanggat nariyan ang mala-impiyernong
batas, hindi mananahimik at mabubusalan
ang College Editors Guild of the Philippines
(CEGP) upang ipaglaban ang demokratikong
karapatan ng bawat mamamahayag
pankampus. Sa kasalukuyan, 185 na kaso
ng panunupil ang hawak ng CEGP sa 54 na
unibersidad at kolehiyo sa buong Pilipinas.
Ilan sa mga kasong tinutugunan dito ang
represyon sa Outcrop ng University of the
Philippines Baguio (UP Baguio), The National
ng National University (NU), The Monthly
Quest ng Quezon City Polytechnic University
(QCPU), at EARIST Technozette ng Eulogio
Amang Rodriguez Institute of Science and
Technology (EARIST).
Ang kasong libelo na isinampa sa
dating punong patnugot ng Outcrop na si
Jesusa Paquibot na patuloy na dinidinig at
sinusuportahan ng CEGP ay isang malinaw
na manipestasyon ng pilit na pambubusal
sa naturang pahayagan. Naging matunog
din sa balita kamakailan ang bantang
pagpapatalsik noon sa 35 na mag-aaaral ng
EARIST kabilang na ang punong patnugot
ng EARIST Technozette na si Hannah Pelayo
at pagdadamot sa pondo na ilalaan sana
sa paglilimbag ng Technozette. Isa rin sa
mga kampanya ng CEGP ay ang muling
pagbubukas ng The Monthly Quest ng QCPU
na ipinasara ng kanilang administrasyon
noong 2012.
CJA ng 1991, karapat-dapat na itakwil at ibasura
Napatunayan na kahit na lagpas walumpung
taon ang alyansa, hindi napapagod at
nalulumbay ang CEGP sa pagsusulong ng mga
reporma at proyektong higit na importante
para sa milyun-milyong Pilipinong mag-aaral.
Isa sa nangungunang plataporma ng CEGP
ang pagbabasura ng CJA na sadyang pasan
sa krus para sa maraming mamamahayag
pankampus. Ngayon na nailahad ang
reyalidad sa pag-agos ng pamamahayag sa
loob ng kampus, maaaring igiit na walang silbi
at taliwas sa hangarin ang CJA.
Sa huli, ang agarang pagpapasa ng Campus
Press Freedom (CPF) Bill at ang pagbabasura sa
hungkag na CJA ang kasagutan sa pagwawakas
ng karahasan at panggigipit ng administrasyon
ng mga kampus na nakakaranas ng represyon.
Ang pagwasiwas ng CJA ang ginagamit ng
mga administrasyon ng bawat kampus upang
kitlin ang demokratikong karapatan ng bawat
estudyanteng Pilipino. Maaaring tutulan
ang ganitong pang-aapi kung matitimo at
maitatatak sa kaisipan ng mag-aaral na ang
kolektibong pagkilos at pag-aklas lamang ang
masasandalan at maaasahan. Napatunayan ng
CEGP na hindi hadlang ang katandaan upang
kumilos sa pagkamit ng minimithing kalayaan
at karapatan sa pamamahayag sa loob at labas
ng kampus.
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FEATURE June 2014
6
THE NATIONAL GUILDER
CARP: 26 years of bogus agrarian reform
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Liana Acuzar
Te Louisian Courier, University of Saint Louis-Tuguegarao
My first drawings as a kid mostly depict vast and lush farmlands
with the farmer happily taking a rest under a tree shade, looking
contented and pleased at a hard days work. Through the years, I had
kept this mental picture in the recesses of my mind, undisturbed and
nearly forgotten. But my involvement in activism made me remember
how I pictured our poor peasants before. When I began to join rallies, I
saw throngs of them, shouting for true agrarian reform and throwing
their fists in the air.
It somehow looked bizarre, so much different from the picture that
I used to believe about them. This is when I began to discover that
there is more to their real situation than what I knew.
Te Game of Land Monopoly
It is under false knowledge when one says that the times have
changed that the era of slavery, exploitation and repression has
already passed. The toiling masses, the ones who make our clothes
and plant rice, still suffer from the shackles of oppression that we
thought have ended after hundreds of years of colonization.
The monopoly of lands that can be traced even during the times of
Spanish colonialism exists until today. The Hacienda system, for one,
used by Spanish friars and the local ruling class to own huge portions
of lands in order to control the production and collection of tributes
is still being used by their todays equivalent the big landlords and
the bureaucrat capitalists.
Until today, 7 out of 10 farmers do not have their own land to till.
While thousands of hectares are owned and profited from by the
ruling and elite few, our peasants have to make out of unfair policies
in wages, working conditions and sharing of harvests.
Bogus Agrarian Reform
In 1988, the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) was
enacted with the aim to push for agrarian reform by distributing land
to the landless Filipino farmers. However, it turned out that in its 26
years of enactment, it only gave license to the landlords to grab and
own concentrated areas of land.
When the poor farmers tagged CARP as pro-landlord, they did
not declare this without basis. CARP allows land use conversion from
agricultural to commercial use in order to evade the inclusion of large
portions of land for distribution. It also has Stock Distribution Option
(SDO) that gives stocks instead of physical distribution of lands to
farmers or farm worker beneficiaries.
Under CARP, the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) distributes
lands with the condition that the farmer beneficiaries must pay
monthly amortization for 30 years in order to legitimately own
the land. Just like in the 6,000-hectare Hacienda Luisita, owned by
the Cojuangco-Aquino clan, the awarding of Certificate of Land
Ownership and Acquisition (CLOA) does not automatically mean
full ownership. CARP allows different schemes to maintain land
monopoly like leaseback, joint venture, corporative scheme, lease,
and farm management contract.
The lives of farmers and farm workers cannot be genuinely
improved under CARP. In Hacienda Luisita alone, the farm workers
are only allowed to work one to two times a week. Furthermore, not all
landless farmers are subject for distribution because CARP requires
rigid screening of its beneficiaries. This clearly shows that it does not
give value to the decades of unpaid hard work of farmers in cultivating
lands and creating the wealth that is enjoyed by only a few.
DAR and Department of Environment and Natural Resources boast
that they have already distributed around 4.6 million hectares and
3.8 million hectares respectively to 5 million beneficiaries. However,
according to Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas, 60 % of distributed
lands to beneficiaries are already being re-concentrated because of
CARP, thus retaining the fact that many farmers are still landless and
in huge debt with landlords.
Te Bloody Trail
The persisting monopoly of the few and its attendant landlessness
for the majority can be reflected at the existing political structure of
our society. As long as the landlords and bureaucrat capitalists take
hold of the political power, the policies and laws that it creates will
always be according to their interests and favor.
CARP was enacted during the administration of Cory Aquino who
came from the clan that owns Hacienda Luisita. It is also during her
administration that thousands of farmers demanding true agrarian
reform marched to Mendiola in Manila to air their grievances but were
met with state violence as 13 of them were killed and many others
were left wounded. This was then known in history as the Mendiola
Massacre. On November 16, 2004, seven were also killed at Hacienda
Luisita when hundreds of farmers and farm workers formed a picket
line and held a strike against their P9.50 weekly wage. Until now,
many leader-peasants are being killed, tortured and harassed in the
name of maintaining the status quo the monopoly of land.
History can attest that whenever the toiling masses gather their
force to show to the powers-that-be that they are the important
forces of production, the ruling class always uses all of its available
apparatus from laws and policies to brute force to suppress the
peoples struggle.
Peoples ght for genuine agrarian reform
As CARP neared its expiration last June 30, some members of
Congress filed a bill for another two-year extension of the law. For the
peasants, this does not give them the hope that agrarian reform will
finally be achieved. That is why thousands of peasants from different
provinces marched to Manila and camped out at DAR to call for the
scrapping of CARP and the enactment of Genuine Agrarian Reform
Bill (GARB) or House Bill 375.
GARB was authored by Anakpawis Partylist and aims to break up
the monopoly of a few landowners and foreign control of our lands
and to implement genuine agrarian reform in order to finally end the
feudal and semi-feudal exploitation of our farmers.
Unlike CARP that makes distribution of land a business, GARB
promotes free land distribution to all landless farmers. According to
Anakpawis Partylist, it also aims to improve the living standards of its
farmer beneficiaries by improving the post-harvest, market access
and market price guarantees and such other services necessary to
making their production viable and increase their income.
Moreover, it upholds the principle that ending the monopoly of
lands will help prepare the conditions for national industrialization
and for an economy that is self-sustaining and self-determining.
***
Knowing the resolute spirit of the peasants to end the hundreds of
years of exploitation, I know that one day, I wont have to revisit the
mental picture of the happy farmer anymore to see a farmer smile and
be contented over the victory of their struggle.
Despite the difficulties, the peasants do not see this fight as a
hopeless cause. They believe that it is only through collective action
of the Filipino people that genuine social change can be achieved,
and that we, the youth, have a great role to play in this historical and
noble struggle.
THE NATIONAL GUILDER www.cegp.org
FEATURE July 2014
7