The militant Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP) lambasted the government for adding insult to injury by proposing the food coupon scheme to help the poor, or so it says. According to Danilo “Ka Daning” Ramos, secretary general of the group “this scheme is really nothing but a ploy to placate the hungry Filipino people from staging massive protest actions. The government cannot hide the hunger suffered by most of our countrymen anymore, that it has now resorted to playing the role as a benevolent benefactor of the poor,”
 
“But the toiling masses know that though the government is playing this role, it is also the one responsible for the hunger and poverty that we are experiencing. Who entered us into the GATT-WTO, which now leave millions of us peasants out of work and out of our lands, who orchestrated the demolition of urban poor communities and side-walk vendors, who did nothing when the prices of oil, power, water, food and basic services soared? The answer to all this is the government,” said the peasant leader.

The group also pointed out that this dole-out scheme was just a knee-jerk reaction of the regime when the SWS survey on hunger came out. Many of our countrymen have been hungry long before the survey but it has only done this now, to save face and say that it is doing something about it.

As for his part, Carl Anthony Ala, public information officer of KMP, “this is just the beginning, as long as the Macapagal-Arroyo government does not change its anti-people policies more and more people would be mired in hunger, poverty and landlessness. To protest against this, peasants from all over the country will hold massive actions to condemn this atrocity to the poor. We will make this October red!!!”

“We will hold daily protest actions to expose this regime as being the no.1 cause of our plight. If Mrs. Arroyo cannot do anything to alleviate the suffering of the people she might as well step down,” ended Ala.# # #
 

KMP - 7 October 2004