Luisita land dispute may spill over other haciendas!-militant peasants; peasant unrest may erupt if SC sides with landlords

News Release | August 8, 2010 | Reference: Felix Paz, chairman, KMP-Bikol and national council member, KMP |   The militant Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipnas (KMP) warned that if the Hacienda Luisita land case is not settled in favor of the long suffering farm workers, then there is a high probability that farm workers from other haciendas all over the country may launch farm strikes to sympathize with their brethren and to assert their right to till the land themselves.

According to Felix Paz, chairman of KMP-Bikol and concurrent national council chairman of KMP, “the Supreme Court should listen to the age old demand of peasants for land particularly in the Hacienda Luisita case, if not then landlords class will use the ruling to further maintain control of vast land holdings and deny social justice for the peasantry.”

“There is a very high chance that massive peasant unrest will erupt if the decision of the Supreme Court favors the Cojuangcos. This will serve as form of sympathy action and will also intensify the peasant struggle for land in all its forms,” added the peasant leader.“In Bicol alone there are a lot of hacienda farm workers that are already locked in the life and death struggle for land, Hacienda Berenguer and Peralta in Sorsogon are just two of them. The demand since time immemorial is the right to till their own land and we would settle for nothing less. Our message to the Cojuangco-Aquino clan is simple: “Return all of the Hacienda Luisita land to the farm workers, nothing more, and nothing less!” ended Paz. # # #