LAKBAYANIS ARRIVE IN METRO MANILA TO COMMEMORATE EDSA II, MENDIOLA MASSACRE

Protesters from the Southern Tagalog provinces of Laguna, Quezon, Rizal, Cavite and Batangas arrived in Metro Manila on the fifth day of the Lakbayan, in time for the commemoration of EDSA II, the popular uprising that led to the ouster of former President Joseph Estrada.

The protest dubbed as “Lakbayan para sa Pagkain, Lupa at Hustisyang Panlipunan” or the March for Food, Land and Social Justice, started last January 16 in Batangas successfully held protest in front of the Ninoy Aquino Monument in Makati and the Edsa Shrine along EDSA and Ortigas Avenue.

Protesters decried the failure of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program and pushed for the alternative legislation filed in Congress by partylist groups Anakpawis, Gabriela and Bayan Muna.

Gabriela Southern Tagalog secretary general Helen Asdolo said there is no reason for the Arroyo administration to extend the CARP as this will only give landlords like the Cojuangcos and the Reyeses of Quezon another opportunity to consolidate their haciendas and their landholdings.

Women peasants join the call for the implementation of genuine agrarian reform that will give landless peasants the opportunity to finally own the land that they have tilled for generations.

The Southern Tagalog delegation of the Lakbayan is set to hold protests today at the National Housing Authority and the Department of National Defense. A solidarity gathering and cultural night will be held tonight at the Department of Agrarian Reform. The Lakbayan culminates tomorrow in a march to Mendiola to commemorate the 21st year of the Mendiola Massacre.