Farmers and rural women’s groups held consecutive protests on October 15 and 16 to commemorate International Rural Women’s Day and World Food(less) Day.

Amihan led rural women from Bulacan, Laguna and Cavite in a picket before the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) to protest the lack of genuine agrarian reform in the country.

They highlighted several cases of land grabbing and land conversion that devastated farmers. These cases include land grabbing in the Araneta Estates in San Jose Del Monte City; Lupang Ramos in Dasmariñas, Cavite; Hacienda Luisita under TADECO, Aboitiz, and Ayala Land Inc.; lands in Nueva Ecija where Certificates of Land Ownership Award (CLOA) and Certificates of Land Transfer (CLT) were cancelled; 6,000 hectares of land taken over by oil palm plantations in Negros; and lands covered by state projects such as reclamation and Laguna Lake Road Network that will result in massive displacement of farmers.

The women farmers demanded the need for genuine land reform, fair farmgate prices for their produce, and access to food and land.

“Women farmers are leading the fight for a just and equitable future,” Alyansa ng Magbubukid sa Bulacan chairperson Cecil Rapiz said.

Rural women receive inadequate support, she said. “The government often favors the wealthy, neglecting women in rural areas. Worse, those who express their dissent are silenced.”

On the next day, October 16, women joined farmers and fisherfolk in a protest before the Department of Agriculture to condemn the neoliberal and inutil government policies and programs that worsen hunger in the country.

“A hunger-free Philippines by 2027 is just the president’s pipe dream as long as the DA’s and government’s programs to lower rice market prices are all failures. The promise to bring down the price of rice to ₱20 per kilo will always be a thorn in Marcos Jr’s side,” Kilusang Magbubukid sa Pilipinas stated. Commodities are too expensive, Filipinos’ income is insufficient leading to more and more people suffering from poverty and hunger, it added.

Farmers also denounced the DA-supported importation policy which destroys local production.

“Many Filipino families can no longer afford three daily meals due to poverty. This is Marcos’ legacy – more and more poor people despite the government’s supposed billions of pesos of budget for aid,” KMP said.

The protests were part of the national democratic organizations’ Peasant Month commemoration. Apart from this, peasant groups held various activities in different areas nationwide, including holding “Bagsakan” (farmers’ markets) in Metro Manila and Cebu.