MANILA, Philippines - Now in its third week in Metro Manila, the group of protesting farmers from Calatagan town in Batangas province on Wednesday staged a noise barrage outside the Batasan Pambansa complex in Quezon City as they continue to denounce the conversion of a 500-hectare land in their town into a mining site.
Banging tambourines and other improvised devices, the peasants marched toward the south gate of the complex at the House of Representatives before mounting a noise barrage while urging lawmakers to pass House Bill 1257.
Authored by Akbayan party-list Rep. Risa Hontiveros-Baraquel, HB 1257 otherwise known as the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) Extension and Reform Bill seeks a five-year extension of the 20-year-old reform program until 2013.
Ka Uper Aleroza, spokesperson of the Pambansang Kilusan ng mga Samahan sa Kanayunan (PKSK), said they were pinning their hopes to the immediate passage of the said measure that could finally return 507 hectares of land to the Calatagan farmers.