Aquino urged to make Luisita example of 'genuine land reform'

A church-based lay group urged President Benigno Simeon "Noynoy" Aquino III to make Hacienda Luisita an example of genuine agrarian reform and social justice for farmers. The Rural Missionaries of the Philippines (RMP) said Aquino, as chief executive, should help farmers get the land they till. “We particularly call on him to express this principle in relation to Hacienda Luisita; we also call on him to enact a law carrying genuine agrarian reform for the tillers," it said in an article posted on the Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) news site. RMP urged Aquino to “show his support for the social justice component underlying land reform and ensure that land distribution is paramount and not allow alternatives such as the stock distribution option." “We particularly call on him to express this principle in relation to Hacienda Luisita; we also call on him to enact a law carrying genuine agrarian reform for the tillers," the group stated RMP lamented that the problems of farmers still persist: "landlessness," displacement, and lack of basic services for them. RMP said there is no genuine land reform yet in many parts of the country because the land has not yet been distributed to the tillers. "Land is still monopolized by landlords and corporations, as seen with the creation of Special Economic Zones, open-pit mining, logging, plantations for biofuels and export crops. As such, land is being converted, and the effect is the destruction of our ecology, the displacement of farmers, fisher folk and indigenous peoples, and the worsening of food security," it said. –VVP, GMANews.TV