Dumating na kahapon sa Maynila ang mga kinatawan ng mga magsasaka, kabataan at kababaihan mula sa Eastern Visayas. Ito ay bahagi ng kanilang kampanya laban sa kagutuman at mlitarisasyon na kanilang kinakaharap sa Samar at Leyte. Mainit silang sinalubog ng iba’t ibang sektor at nagdaos sila ng maikling programa sa Mendiola. Inaasahang magtatagal sila ng dalawang linggo para puntahan ang iba’t ibang ahensiya ng pamahalaan para sa kanilang mga petisyon at kahilingan.
by Walkie Miraña, Concerned Artists of the Philippines
THE mural says it all. The people’s suffering and oppression will give rise to people’s resistance. It will serve as a fertile ground for the people’s struggle for genuine agrarian reform.
“Padayon” is a Visayan word which means to continue, persist or carry on. For this piece, Padayon meant “onwards with the people’s struggle for land.” It was Talusan Fernandez’s contribution to the 32nd commemoration of the September 1985 Escalante Massacre that killed 20 farmers and injured dozens others.
The artwork is most relevant three decades after “Escam”. Farmers and agricultural workers continue to suffer from the exploitations that drove them to march that Friday morning that merited them nothing but tyranny and bullets.
“My memories of the incident and my recognition of the bravery of the survivors fueled me in creating this mural,” Talusan Fernandez said.
“This piece shows wave upon wave of protests from an outline of a shouting sacada’s (sugarcane farm worker) face that symbolizes their decades of struggle against their oppression. The barbed wire, which fuses with the planted and harvested sugarcane symbolizes the repression they struggle against,” he explained of his work.
Talusan Fernandez is a social realist artist since the time of the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos, producing nationalist propaganda materials since 1975 and paintings since 1976.
In his four decades of activism through art, he became one of the founding members of Kaisahan in 1977, Free the Artists Movement, Concerned Artists of the Philippines in 1983, and the Artista ng Bayan (ABAY).
Talusan Fernandez currently chairs the National Commission on Culture and the Arts Committee on Visual Arts.
To the artist, “Padayon” only arouses more questions rather than answers.
PADAYON by Egai Talusan Fernandez, September 20, 2017, Escalante City, Negros Oriental
“Did their conditions change 32 years after the massacre? Have they been given justice and have they been given the land that rightfully belongs to them?” Talusan Fernandez asked.
Talusan Fernandez’s “Padayon” gains even more significance today as thousands of peasants are set to stage the biggest nationally-coordinated protest action to demand for genuine agrarian reform and to struggle against Rodrigo Duterte’s tyranny. Today is the last day of their nine-day Pambansang Lakbayan ng mga Magsasaka para sa Lupa at Laban sa Pasismo or #Lakbay Magsasaka as part of their annual commemoration of peasant month (October).
Like the wave of protests in Talusan Fernandez’s masterpiece, the Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas and Unyon ng mga Mangagawa sa Agrikultura shall hold the culminating protest action in Mendiola, Manila with farmers and peasant leaders from Southern Mindanao, Northern Mindanao, Negros, Central Visayas, Eastern Visayas, Bicol, Central Luzon, Cordillera and Cagayan Valley now getting ready at a protest camp at the Department of Agrarian Reform main office in Quezon City. Simultaneous peasant-led actions will take place in major cities and urban centers: Iloilo, Surigao, Tandag, Butuan, Davao, Bacolod and Cebu. #
Piazza dell’Esquilino
Rome, Italy
January 22, 2017
Thousands of farmers from all over the Philippines traveled to Metro Manila to participate in multi-sectoral activities marking the first 100 days of the Rodrigo Duterte government.
They held a solidarity night at the Department of Agrarian Reform multi-purpose gym Friday night (October 7) to underscore their continuing struggle for genuine agrarian reform.
Progressive organizations trooped to Mendiola Bridge in downtown Manila to mark the first 100 days of the Rodrigo Duterte last October 8, Saturday.
The activists said they aim to express support to pro-people programs of the new government while registering their opposition to anti-people policies. Read more
FOUR farmers were killed when armed men in camouflaged uniforms and bonnets swooped down at farmers cultivating land inside the Fort Magsaysay Military Reservation (FMMR) in Bgy. San Isidro, Laur, Nueva Ecija midday of September 1, 2016.
Killed were Elejo Barbado, Emerencia dela Rosa, Violeta “Baby” Mercado and Gaudencio Bagalay.
In a condemnation rally in Quezon City last September 6, survivor Helen Madayag recounted the shooting .
FMMR is the biggest military base in the Philippines and among the five base locations offered to the United States military under the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (EDCA).
Perpetrators of the massacre remain at large.
PEASANT groups Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP) and Alyansang Magbubukid ng Gitnang Luzon (AMGL) and human rights organization Karapatan condemned the killing of four peasants inside the Fort Magsaysay Military Reservation (FMMR) in Barangay San Isidro, Laur, Nueva Ecija last September 3.
According to KMP, the farmers were taking part in a land cultivation activity inside the reservation Saturday morning when a helicopter landed and delivered rifles near their area.
That same afternoon, goons connected to a certain Col. Rigor began firing at the farmers. Read more
FOOD security activists challenged the Rodrigo Duterte government to end land grabbing activities against farmers and indigenous peoples in a conference last August 1 at Balay Kalinaw, University of the Philippines-Diliman.
The Philippine Network of Security Food Programmes, Inc. (PNSFP) presented cases of land grabbing throughout the country, as well as their campaigns and mass actions.
Agricultural land in the Philippines decreased by 2.785 million hectares from 5.4 million from 2002 to 2012 due to land grabbing and the subsequent conversion of agricultural lands for other uses, such as mining and Special Economic Zones, PNSFP advocacy officer Sharlene Lopez said.
She added that the Philippines’ agricultural productivity, rural communities and environment are increasingly at risk if land grabbing continues.
According to PNFSP studies, many land grabbing victims were deceived by the promise of fortune into planting cash crops like rubber or oil palm.
Others were forcibly displaced by militarization or “projects” by either the local government or big businesses.
Many also end up having no choice but to work at cash crop plantations for less than the minimum wage.
A panel of government reactors from the Office of the Cabinet Secretary, the National Anti-Poverty Commission transition team, the Office of the Secretary of Agrarian Reform, the House of Representatives (HOR) Committee on Food Security and HOR Committee on Agrarian Reform said their respective departments would try their best to return the farmlands and ancestral domains to the people.
Despite their assurances, however, Niklas Reese of the Philippine Bureau-Germany encouraged the participants to continue their advocacy against land grabbing.
“We have to be aware that the change of administration doesn’t change the nature of capitalism. We have to be vigilant; we have to be aware,” he said.
Reese added that the government should also to prosecute land grabbers.
“The role of social movements like this one is not just for demanding change, but accountability from the government as well,” Resse said. # (By Abril Layad B. Ayroso)