The militant Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP), the Alyansa ng Magbubukid ng Gitnang Luzon (AMGL) and the Alyansa ng mga Manggagawang-bukid sa Asyenda Luisita (AMBALA) stormed the Department of Land Reform formerly the Department of Agrarian Reform, to call for the junking of the Stock Distribution Option (SDO) scheme and the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP). 

According to Danilo “Ka Daning” Ramos, “for more than 16 years we have been calling for the junking of the CARP, because of it is bogus, anti-peasant and does not address the basic demand of farmers for land. Since their implementation, the CARP and the SDO scheme has done nothing to alleviate the plight of farmers and have instead been used to further displace farmers from their lands,”

“A glaring example of which is the Hacienda Luisita, where now more than 30,000 peasants inside the plantation are being displaced by the Cojuangco-Aquino families. It seems that the exploitation and oppression being done by these families to the farm-workers of giving a P9.50 salary, is not enough, that now they are evicting the peasants from their lands,” added Ramos.
As for her part Ka Lita Mariano, secretary general of AMGL, “now the military and the police presence in the hacienda is such that they almost equal the number of the strikers. The police and the military presence there is highly illegal and they should be pulled-out immediately. If violence erupts in the hacienda the Cojuangco’s, Aquino’s, the police and the military have no one to blame but themselves,”

Meanwhile Carina Espino, secretary general of AMBALA, “we have long been in the plantation even before the Cojuangco’s acquired its majority shares. Our ancestors have tilled the lands here and even died here, and now the ungrateful Cojuangco’s are evicting us from the land that we ourselves developed. We will fight to the end to defend our land,” # # #.

KMP - 11 November 2004