A group of indigenous farmers from southern Philippines went on a 60-day march to Manila to reclaim 144 hectares of ancestral land that they lost 10 years ago after it was converted into commercial use and exempted from the land reform program, in favour of a big landowner in the province.
The Sumilao farmers marched from Bukidnon in Mindanao to Metro Manila from October 10 to December 10, covering 1,700 kilometers, to dramatize their issue and also to call for the extension and reform of the Philippine’s Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP), which will end in 2008.
AFA supported the campaign of PAKISAMA to help the Sumilao farmers in their struggle to reclaim the land. AFA improved and updated the Sumilao march website and created an e-bulletin that was sent to partners and supporters in and out of the Philippines. AFA also helped in organizing the campaign and the secretariat staff joined some portions of the march and attended some fund-raising and awareness-raising events.
The struggle of the Sumilao farmers gained the support of local and international groups. It was also extensively covered by local and international media.
As a result of the farmers’ courageous and selfless sacrifice, the government decided to cancel the previous land conversion order, thus paving the way for the process of putting the land under agrarian reform and eventually awarding it to the farmers.
The Sumilao farmers have since gone back to their hometown, where they continue their struggle at the level of the agrarian reform department, which has yet to issue a cease and desist order on the landowners’ activities and a notice of agrarian reform coverage for the land. But the Sumilao farmers are hopeful that the justice that has eluded them for so long will finally be theirs, and that they will soon be able to till their own lands.
Click here to read AFA’s solidarity statement for the Sumilao farmers.
Click here to read SorKorPor’s solidarity statement for the Sumilao farmers.
Click here for more information and news about the Sumilao farmers.
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