Our Statement-Response to the veiled threat of New People's Army against AKBAYAN on the Issue of CARP and Peasant Killings in Masbate and Bondoc Peninsula

In a letter dated June 5, 2008, the Jose Rapsing Command of the New People's Army directly responded to a privilege speech made by Rep. Risa Hontiveros Baraquel on killings perpetrated by the NPA to peasant leaders in Bondoc Peninsula and Quezon.

AKBAYAN condemns in the strongest possible terms this letter designed to threaten democratic organizations like AKBAYAN, to create a culture of fear among people's organizations and farming communities, and to warn against the pursuit of agrarian reform via the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP).

While in its essence a n admission by the armed group of the National Democratic Front of the killing of Butchoy Vale, a peasant leader and barangay captain of Bgy. Royroy, Masbate. Beyond that, it too is a serious warning against those pursuing a path different from that chosen by the NPA. To quote from the letter:

"Hindi kami naniniwalang masosolusyonan ng sa amin ay repormismo, ekonomismo at oportunismong linyang dala dala nyo ang problema ng mga naghihirap na masa pero habang hindi naman kayo gumagawa ng ano mang hakbang na ikakapahamak ng buhay nino man sa masa at mga kasama ay hindi kami hahantong sa paggamit ng armas laban sa inyo."

In a joint rejoinder, Bayan Muna, Gabriela, and Anakpawis dismissed AKBAYAN's statement on the 'synchronicity' in the position taken by landed lawmakers and proponents of the so-called Genuine Agrarian Reform Bill as malicious and irresponsible. They called it a "cheap shot  at progressive party-list groups made to gain media mileage for the extension of the bogus Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program."

I wish to reiterate that the AKBAYAN statement is based on the track record of the Bayan bloc in Congress as  far as the bill extending and reforming CARP is concerned.

For one, when landlords in Congress tried to delay the committee deliberations on the bills on CARP through the conduct of yet another series of consultations in different regions, they voted in favor of the motion. This despite the fact that the same bills being tackled in the 14th Congress were already subjected to three regional consultative hearings and several hearings more in the House during the 13th Congress.

At the Committee level, they also voted against the committee report that contained provision to extend the budget for land acquisition and distribution and several reform measures, among them the indefeasibility of CLOAs and EPs, gender-sensitive programs for women farmers, and the exclusive jurisdiction of DAR in handling agrarian-related cases. The committee report is far from perfect, but it contained provisions that farmers themselves have been pushing for. Furthermore, to kill it at the committee level is to close all opportunities to add other reform measures, such as the prohibition on the conversion of irrigated and irrigable lands and the removal of non-distributive schemes like the stock distribution option.