"At least 1.3 million farmers to be displaced by RP-China agreement!!!" -KMP

18 September 2007
Reference: Rafael "Ka Paeng" Mariano, chairman, KMP and president, ANAKPAWIS

The militant Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP) clarified that the RP-China agreements does not merely mean the leasing of land to the Chinese but massive eviction and displacement of farmers from their lands. With the computation of the group placing 1.5 hectares as the basic land plot for a peasant family, at 1.3 million peasants would be evicted from the lands they are tilling to give way to 2 million hectares targeted by the Macapagal-Arroyo regime for the RP-China deal.There are at least 19 Memorandum of Agreements (MOA) on agricultural deals that the Philippines signed with China and all of them are detrimental not just for our farmers but to the environment as well.

According to Rafael "Ka Paeng" Mariano, chairman of KMP and concurrent president of ANAKPAWIS party list, "The (a) MOA allowing the Fu Hua Company of China to invest some US$ 3.83 billion (30 billion RMB) in one million hectares of land in the Philippines for the cultivation of hybrid corn, hybrid rice and hybrid sorghum, (b) MOA with the Agricultural Department of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region on the development of an initial 40,000 hectares of agribusiness lands for cassava and sugar for ethanol production for China 's domestic consumption, (c) Beidahung projects involving the development of 200,000 hectares of land in the North Luzon Agribusiness Quadrangle (NLAQ); identification of potential sites for agri-tourism and organic food growing; setting up of a modern farm production facility; and the establishment of a bio-chemical facility, allow foreign corporations to lease hectares of lands in violation of the limits imposed by the Constitution. At the onset these will involve at least 1.5 million hectares meaning more farmers will be displaced,"

"Add to these the (a) MOAs between the Nanning Yongkai Industry Group and B.M. SB Integrated Biofuels Company on joint venture to establish bioethanol plants in the country, (b) MOA between China National Constructional and Agricultural Machinery Import and Export Corporation (CAMCE) and Palawan Bio-Energy Development Corp, (c) MOA between One Cagayan Resource Development Center Inc. and the Nanning Yongkai Industry Group to develop bio-ethanol plants that would each have a capacity to produce at least 150,000 liters a day , (d) Memorandum of Agreement Negros Southern Integrated Biofuels Company and Nanning Yong Kai Industry Group Co., Ltd. for the supply machineries and equipment to manufacture bioethanol, have no proper safeguards to prevent the intensive use of our scarce water resources, to prevent deforestation, and to prevent destruction of biodiversity. Besides for a bio-ethanol plant to be able to produce 150,000 liters a day it would need at least 10,000 hectares of land and with what they are planning they are going to build a lot of it, eviction of farmers will further intensify," added the peasant leader.

"All these schemes to essentially sell at least 2 million hectares of land to the Chinese are also all geared to further push the peasantry into landlessness. It is anathema to the state's duty to improve the lives of its citizens and to provide social justice. The RP-China agreements is a mockery of genuine land reform and a complete sell out of the Philippines, therefore it must be junked," ended Mariano.