The March for land and justice
On 9th October 2007, the peasants of Sumilao began marching to express their unhappiness with the inability of successive governments to enact genuinely effective agrarian reforms. Over the 1,700 kilometers it covered, the march brought together individuals from all camps : defenders of property rights, representatives from civil society, the Catholic church, and the international community. In total, 3,000 people walked the roads with the peasants for 60 days. Throughout the whole trip, the peasants were very generously supported by local communities offering food, water and moral support, and by a Catholic church that helped them to find refuge each evening. Eventually, under the growing pressure from the civil society, the government signed a pact in which it officially ceded the 144 hectares to the peasants.
What future for agrarian reform?
Started in 1988, the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Programme (CARP) was intended to redistribute 10 million hectares to peasant families over a ten year period. 20 years later, hardly three million have been redistributed and 10 million peasants are still estimated to be without land. According to the national confederation of peasant organisations, Pakisama [2], the Sumilao peasants’ struggle perfectly reflects the failure of CARP and the level of corruption in the nation: “the peasants acquire property deeds thanks to CARP, but, because of business and political elite interests, they are continually the victims of physical and legal harassment. The political powers, supposedly mandated by the people to apply the law and promote social justice, choose instead to act as biased middlemen for foreign private enterprise, spreading luxury hotel complexes and golf courses.” Faced with the food crisis and the continual resistance of multinationals to agrarian reforms, Pakisma and the Asian Farmers Association [3] (AFA) are calling on all peasant organisations to mobilise in order to obligate the government to prolong CARP , which is due to come to an end this year. AFA points out that the Sumilao peasants’ struggle testifies to the widespread mobilisation and support that a peasant group can excite, even when confronted by powerful opponents.
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‘Our struggle began with a dream that one day we would be able to recover the land that was the source of our ancestors’ lives. For such a long time now a barrier of laws and title deeds has separated us from our land, but, despite these heavy injustices, we have persevered in it, always choosing the peaceful path, and today we have won’. A peasant of Sumilao |
Also read: Résonances Asia N°24 - May 2008
