Peasant, climate justice orgs unite vs DAR’s inaction on agrarian issues

Quezon City, Philippines — Kilusan para sa Repormang Agraryo at Katarungan Panlipunan (KATARUNGAN), Philippine Movement for Climate Justice (PMCJ), Pambansang Koalisyon ng Kababaihan sa Kanayunan (PKKK), Alter Trade Foundation, Inc., Bukluran ng Manggagawang Pilipino (BMP), Pambansang Kaisahan ng Magbubukid sa Pilipinas (PKMP), Makabayang Alyansa ng Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (Makabayan-Pilipinas), Aniban ng Manggagawa sa Agrikultura (AMA), Focus on the Global South, and other groups have joined forces in calling out the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) over longstanding, unresolved agrarian issues covering 7,887 agrarian reform beneficiaries (ARBs) across 19 areas in the country.

Under the ‘June 10 Land Rights Committee’, the groups have submitted a letter to the DAR Central Office which outlines the complaints and argues the need for a high-level dialogue with the presence of DAR Secretary Conrado Estrella III, underscoring the urgency of government action in the face of Super El Niño, worsening poverty incidence in rural communities, and land grabs despite the peasants’ hard-won tenurial rights. Two major agenda items are submitted for dialogue: the resolution of more than 19 land cases that remained unresolved for years within the DAR bureaucracy, and the US$370 million World Bank SPLIT Project loan.

The ‘June 10 Land Rights Committee’, the committee set up by the convergence of peasant and climate justice groups, has documented and engaged with ARBs and farming communities, and identified aggressive and massive land conversion, delayed land distribution and redistribution, cancellation of certificates of land award, harassment of ARBs, and inadequate support services as pressing agrarian issues besetting the farmers. These interconnected issues have resulted in significant agricultural land losses, the decimation of livelihoods, displacement, food insecurity, and deepening poverty among affected agrarian reform beneficiaries and farming communities.

The groups are pushing for the dialogue on June 10, 2026 to coincide with the 38th anniversary of the signing of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Law.

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QUOTES:

“Ang papataas na antas ng mga paglabag sa karapatan ng mga magsasaka ay bahagi ng patuloy na pagkiling ng estado sa mga korporasyong tubo ang hinahangad at patuloy na pagwawaksi sa karapatan sa lupa at pagkain ng mga magsasaka at karaniwang Pilipino.”

– CLARO PASION, Pangulo, Kilusan para sa Repormang Agraryo at Katarungan Panlipunan (KATARUNGAN)

“Without secure and agricultural support services to land, farmers are less able to withstand intensifying droughts, floods, and increasingly unpredictable weather patterns. The farmers have been at the forefront of every economic and climate crises, weathering the compounded impacts while barely securing the nation's food supply. A genuine agrarian reform program must go beyond land titling and confront the structural roots of inequality and landlessness in the countryside. There is no climate justice if farmers have no rights and do not own the land they till and cultivate.”

– IAN RIVERA, National Coordinator, Philippine Movement for Climate Justice

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FOR MORE INFORMATION OR TO REQUEST INTERVIEWS, PLEASE CONTACT:

Sheila Abarra

Senior Media and Communications Officer

Philippine Movement for Climate Justice

mediacommunications@climatejustice.ph

Viber: +63-991-669-2356

WhatsApp: +63-938-089-8327