Marcos Jr’s State of the Nation Address (SONA) is nothing but fraudulent phrases and empty promises. He talked about the agricultural sector as if it has been one of his priorities under his regime. Truth be told, he has no right to speak about the plight of the Filipino farmers as he remained blind and deaf to the struggle and demands of the tillers.

To worsen his violation of mandate, Marcos Jr maintained his role as the local lackey of the US Imperialism, ensuring its ironclad control in our semicolonial and semifeudal country. Instead of “Bagong Pilipinas”, “Bigong Pilipinas” is felt all over the countryside of Negros during his rule.

Systemic land issues and agricultural liberalization have worsen each day. In Central Negros, agricultural lands are either tied to the monocrop sugar industry as dictated by the US imperialism or forcibly converted into commercial use. Farmers and farm workers are victimized by the World bank-funded programs: Support to Parcelization of Land Individual Titling (SPLIT) and New Agrarian Emancipation Act (NAEA), which give them an illusion of having their own lands to till. In reality, these are maneuvers of the Marcos Jr regime to make landgrabbing easier, in line with the wishes of his master. Skyrocketing importations also put our farmers in deep poverty.

Just this year, Negrosanons suffered the consequences of the El Niño phenomenon without assistance from the reactionary government. The same thing happened when armyworm infestation affected hectares of agricultural lands. Now, it is not surprising that Marcos Jr sits still in Malacañang while Negrenses are in need of help as phreatic eruption of Kanlaon takes place.

It is even more infuriating that the response of this regime to the demands of the people are draconian measures such as the Anti-Terror Law and ramped up militarization in the countryside. Just yesterday, around 11 in the morning, Isko Marco, a farmer in Sitio Kabulay, Barangay Trinidad, Guihulngan City, Negros Oriental was harrassed by state forces. His house was ransacked and residents attending the occassion on that day were detained inside the house, subjecting them to unlawful interrogation.

These are glaring proof that the Marcos Jr regime’s so-called ‘development’ does not and will never include the peasant sector.
Thus, the Negrosanon farmers are determined to organize themselves to amplify the call for genuine agrarian reform and national industrialization. All-out effort is pitched in planting the seeds for the people’s political power through advancing the national democratic revolution with a socialist perspective.###