TACLOBAN CITY – The commanding general of 19th IB was taking an anti-development and anti -peace stance when he categorized the advocacy of SAGUPA-SB Secretary-General Nestor Lebico for genuine agrarian reform and against the fake/ ineffective land reform program s of the government as defunct issues.
“Every farmer who does not own a land knows the burden of being landless. To them the struggle to own a land is a very living issue. It is their most effective way out of poverty. Their way towards sustainable development. Not a defunct issue,” Lebico explains.
The record of the government in breaking up land monopoly by a few and distributing these lands to the landless is a matter of public record. A reality for easy verification. After 40 plus years and millions of money spent on the government land reform program, millions of farmers are still landless. On the other hand, some families still own vast tracts of lands like the family of the Commander in Chief of the AFP etc. Exposing this reality is useful for the people and for good governance according to Lebico.
“It is when exposing the reality about the government land reform program and campaigning for a genuine alternative as was done by SAGUPA and MUFAC are branded as anti peace and anti development or or as supporting the NPAs by soldiers claiming to be for peace and development that farmers experience fear and the distortion of reality under Oplan Bayanihan of the AFP,” Lebico ended.###