THE peasant group Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP) today assailed the Aquino government for using Metro Manila flooding to further justify the forced eviction and relocation of 20,000 estero families and push government housing projects cornered by one of the President’s cronies.
“If there’s someone who is being tickled to death by the government’s failure to address the current flooding in the Metro, it is the President’s crony who cornered government contracts to build housing projects,” KMP secretary general Antonio Flores said.
The peasant group was referring to Jose Acuzar, brother-in-law of Executive Secretary Paquito Ochoa, chairman of New San Jose Builders and owner of Goldenville Realty and Development Corporation that is set to convert more than 85 hectares of productive agricultural lands into a relocation site and evict farmers in Barangay (village) Kaybanban in San Jose Del Monte, Bulacan by the National Housing Authority’s (NHA) Towerville 7.
“Is this the ‘daang matuwid’ being bragged by Aquino? Government’s resettlement contracts are being awarded to known cronies who generously contributed to the President’s campaign in 2010,” Flores said noting that Acuzar reportedly owns the mansion in Samar Street that serves as the headquarters of the “Samar faction” that campaigned for the “Noy-Bi” (Aquino-Binay) tandem during the 2010 elections.
The KMP said “harassment and deception have escalated in the past few days in Barangay Kaybanban.”
“At least 50 armed private security guards backed by local police personnel were deployed in the area last week. The local government is also being used to deceive and bribe the farmers with P5,000 and promising everything to them just to stop cultivating and leave the agricultural lands,” Flores said.
The KMP also said that “the 85 hectares was covered by the government’s Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) and was declared as part of the agrarian reform community in Kaybanban.”
“Barangay Kaybanban is a testament to the sham CARP’s failure to defend farmers of their rights to the lands. Aquino’s haciendero government itself acts as the land-grabber in order to push for an anomalous resettlement project,” Flores said.
“Under the guise of relocating the urban poor, the Aquino government would evict and deny farmers of their rights to the lands,” the KMP leader stressed.
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