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World Food Day: Food shortage is linked to agrarian reform |
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Written by Dong Calmada
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Tuesday, 14 October 2008 |
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The country's commemoration of World Food Day (WFD) for this year is irrelevant unless it tackles the problem of agrarian reform and related issues perpetuating hunger and rural poverty. In a joint statement yesterday, PEACE and UNORKA (Pambansang Ugnayan ng mga Nagsasariling Lokal and Organisasyon sa Kanayunan) welcomed government's efforts to cushion the impact of global food shortage on the Filipino poor, at the very least. However, both organizations claimed that these are just short-term and people "do not feel that government has a long-term agenda to fight food crisis and its twin problem of poverty." The two organizations claimed that hunger and rural poverty are reinforced by government's inability to implement the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) with greater political will. They also cited that skewed foreign policy and corruption, to name a few, contribute to the problems in varying degrees. PEACE and UNORKA specifically proposed CARP extension with reforms, reform in DAR bureaucracy, and massive production of biofuels to be three of the issues that must be addressed by this year's WFD commemoration. (See full text of statement here.) |
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PEACE convenes multisectoral forum on access to justice |
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Written by Dong Calmada
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Wednesday, 25 June 2008 |
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Inspired by Supreme Court Chief Justice's efforts to flesh out "access to justice" by the poor and underprivileged, PEACE initiated the launching of a multisectoral consultation on access to justice by the poor. Titled "Identifying Roadblocks, Drawing Up a Roadmap: A Multisectoral Consultation on Access to Justice by the Poor", the consultation aimed to come up with an integrated access-to-justice agenda with which to engage the Supreme Court and relevant government agencies. Participating in the consultation were 29 organizations serving the sectors of peasants, fishers, urban poor, formal labor, teachers, informal sector, and indigenous peoples. |
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Inhumanity in Masbate must stop, says AR network in a statement |
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Written by Dong Calmada
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Thursday, 24 July 2008 |
A network of NGOs working for agrarian reform, rural development and democratization (ARRDD) yesterday condemned the spate of killings in Masbate that started in December last year. As of this writing, there were already four farmers downed by their respective assassins believed to identified with entities against agrarian reform.
In a statement, PEACE Network noted the irony that the killings have taken place in a "diminutive province considered poorest in the country." It further said: "It is therefore not only economic poverty that torments Masbateños; moral poverty is also gradually worming its way into the province's moral fiber."
PEACE called on government to immediately act on the violence in Masbate immediately. "It must first galvanize its forces to ensure security and welfare for the farmers, while prosecuting the perpetrators. Next in its agenda should be ensuring immediate resolution of land cases in the province in favor of the aggrieved farmers," PEACE said.
(See full text of the Statement here.) |
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