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Article

21 Oct 2018

Author:
Ronalyn Olea, Bulatlat

Philippines: Farmers engaged in collective farming defend lands from firms; receive no support from Govt.

"Fighting off hunger, thousands launch collective farming", 20 October 2018

...Gualberto and her fellow farmers weeded out tall grass from a portion of a 75-hectare land and planted palay, vegetables, root crops and banana.

A few days later, security guards and personnel of the Royalty Moluccan Realty Holdings destroyed the makeshift hut of their organization and pulled out some of their crops. ...[T]he guards fell a hundred banana trees.

Still, Gualberto and the other members...are resolved to maintain their collective farm....

...[T]housands of farmers...have done bungkalan — occupying lands to plant food crops.

Their bungkalan gets no support from government. They do not have irrigation, no farm tools and machineries and other support facilities.

...In Negros alone, 26 of the victims of extrajudicial killings...were involved in bungkalan campaign. Scores were also arrested and slapped with trumped-up charges.

With the government’s failure to address landlessness, farmers and agricultural workers implement their own agrarian reform, relying on the strength of their collective action.

After joining the protest in Manila...Gualberto and her fellow farmers went back to their homes and farms already fenced off by the real estate company. They have greater resolve in defending the land that knows their hands.